


Summer Stars

by marshie_marshmallow



Series: he only did what i would've done [1]
Category: Persona 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2020-02-10 17:30:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 26,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18665071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marshie_marshmallow/pseuds/marshie_marshmallow
Summary: They say if you call your own cell phone number, a man called Joker appears and grants your wish.When kung fu-loving Sevens student Lisa Silverman and Kasugayama gang boss Mishina Eikichi try it out, they're instead marked for death. Joker accuses them of having committed a sin against him, which he'll take vengeance on them for just as soon as they can recall what it actually was. With an old keychain as their only clue as to what happened between them and Joker, they intend to find out the truth behind their 'sin' as well as the full extent of Joker's plans.Assisting them along the way is cheerful magazine reporter Amano Maya, photographer and veteran Persona user Mayuzumi Yukino, and enigmatic Kasugayama student Kashihara Jun. With their skills together, they'll dig until they learn the truth of the Masked Circle.





	1. Act 1: Game Start

**Author's Note:**

> Because I absolutely needed to start another longfic. I'm not too pleased with this but then the entire beginning of Innocent Sin is kinda contrived anyway so who cares?
> 
> I gotta give credit to Sorakh28, since this fic would not exist if not for the extensive thread about this AU that we still have going over on tumblr. It's been weeks.
> 
> Title originates from Silhouette by Owl City.

**August 6 th, 1999 – Seven Sisters High School, Rengedai**

 

Lisa Silverman yawned as she stretched her arms above her head. The humid air in the building felt sticky as if it was clinging to every part of her body. It was giving her a headache, not helped by whatever was buzzing over by the window in a desperate attempt to escape and that low... sound. She couldn't identify it but seemed to be something like radio static.

Her friends were over in the corner chatting. Other students milled around, many of whom had bandaged faces to hide the effects of the dreaded curse on the school's emblem. Just one of the many reasons to get out of there and change into something other than her uniform as soon as she could. She had obviously removed the emblem from hers, as all the students had, but you couldn't take risks when it came to protecting your face from melting.

A sudden wave of _something_ overcame her and she clutched the nearest desk for support.

“ _Heed... my call...”_ a gentle voice said to her, though she couldn't identify its origin. _“Do not... be afraid... I am... part of you.”_

She looked around as she rubbed her head, attempting to find the source of the voice. It didn't seem like anyone had been talking to her. That was just great. The last thing she needed was to be suddenly going crazy. It was... It was probably just something brought on by the heat! That happened sometimes, right? Yeah, that had to be it. She was going to be just fine.

“You alright, Lisa?” someone asked to her left. She looked up into the face of Ogishima Miho, or just Mee-ho, one of her friends. “You look super pale.”

“And you're kind of... sweating. A lot,” added her other friend, Shibata Mami. Also known as Sheba. “Should I get someone?”

Lisa shook her head as she stood up straight and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. “No, it's just... the heat. I got dizzy for a second.”

“It _is_ hot...” Mee-ho said. “It would be a good beach day!”

“But they had to go and cancel summer vacation...” Lisa finished, nodding in agreement at the sentiment. “I still can't believe they managed to get away with that. How do you _cancel_ summer vacation? How is that allowed?” Her headache was starting to cease, as was the static noise.

“Hey, look on the bright side,” Sheba said. “At least it applies to _all_ schools across the city.”

“Yeah!” Mee-ho agreed enthusiastically. “So those guys over at Kasu have to suffer too!”

Lisa giggled. “Yeah, there's that. I'd say it's good payback for cursing us, except we're doing summer classes too.”

Mee-ho paused, contemplative. “Oh yeah... _Speaking_ of Kasu... Wanna know what I heard?”

“What?” Sheba looked curious.

“Weeeeellllll... I overheard out in the hall that we got,” Mee-ho lowered her voice to whisper, “ _a challenge letter._ ”

“A challenge letter?”

“Yep! For someone specific, too, I think! Not sure who, though.”

“Oh c'mon, Mee-ho!” Lisa grabbed her friend's arm and shook it. “You can't just _say_ that! Now I'm all curious!” She really wasn't all _that_ curious, but this seemed like the perfect opportunity to get her mind off of that voice she heard.

“Sorry, Lisa.” Mee-ho gently pushed her hand away. “I don't know anything else.”

She pouted. “Well, this is gonna nag me all day if I don't investigate. Someone around here has gotta know something.”

“Alright! Sounds fun! C'mon, Sheba! Let's go find out what's going on!”

* * *

 

The first stop had to be right next door, in classroom 2-B.

“Man, Noriko's just not been the same since Yoshizaka-sempai dropped out,” one of the students said, gesturing to a girl wearing the tracksuit. “Second student from 3-B to drop out, too... You know, since Saeko-sensei just transferred here, that doesn't reflect that great on her. Not a good year and it's only August...”

“Wait, _both_ the drop-outs were from 3-B?” Sheba looked intrigued. “I hadn't realized. I mean, I knew they were both third years but from the _same class_?”

Lisa yawned again and turned her attention elsewhere as the guy continued saying something about the other student, who had quit school months ago. She vaguely recalled him as being somewhat interesting when he had bothered to show up at all but by now he was just a faint memory in the eyes of the student body. Nobody talked about the guy these days except in comparison to the more recent drop-out, former track star Yoshizaka Anna.

Who cared about a couple of third years that didn't come to class anymore, though? She had a challenge letter to investigate. Someone around here had to know _something_. At the very least, maybe they knew some gossip she hadn't heard before.

Mee-ho had struck up a conversation with Noriko herself. Noriko, for her part, had the track jacket tied around her waist rather than wearing it, because of the heat probably, and she had a melancholy look on her face. Well, she _had_ idolized Anna and had been absolutely crushed by the accident, though, obviously, not as crushed as Anna herself.

Lisa wondered if Noriko knew anything about the letter but doubted it. She was always too busy with the track team to care about things like gang fights. Time to ask everyone else in the class.

* * *

 

After their investigation of the second year classrooms failed to turn up anything of note, the three of them stood huddled in the hallway.

“We're not gonna find anything about it in the teacher's lounge,” Sheba said. “The teachers wouldn't let that sort of thing go so nobody would bring it up to them.”

Mee-ho furrowed her brow. “Sorry. I just thought that since it's right here on the second floor anyway...”

Lisa placed a hand on her shoulder. “Believe me, this is the _last_ place we wanna go asking about such a thing.”

The door to the lounge opened and a middle-aged man in a sweater vest stepped out. “Ah... Is something the matter?” he asked, a concerned look on his face. “Why are you all standing outside the door?”

“Oh!” Mee-ho said. “Hello, Kashihara-sensei! Nothing's wrong. We were just discussing, uh...” She looked over at the other two, silently begging for help.

“Nothing important,” Lisa said. “We were just chatting. Talking about maybe... going to karaoke later!”

The look on Kashihara's face indicated that he didn't believe them that much. Fair enough, given that they had just made themselves look extremely guilty. He rubbed the spot between his eyes, looking tired. Too tired to care about what they were actually up to? “Well, perhaps you should find a better place to talk than right outside the teacher's lounge?”

“Of course, sir. Sorry.”

As he walked off, Sheba's face scrunched up in thought. “Does he seem more stressed to you lately?”

Lisa shrugged. “I don't pay that much attention to him. I mean, he's great and all but he's a third-year teacher. It's not like it's any of our concern.”

“He seemed pretty upset when Okamura-sensei vanished,” Mee-ho said.

“Okamura-sensei vanished weeks ago. I'm telling you, Sheba, this is probably just something in his personal life. Like something to do with his son or whatever. Not _any_ of our business.”

Sheba frowned. “Oh, you're... Yeah... I suppose you're probably right. Let's get going.”

* * *

 

She rolled her eyes as yet another student chose to talk about the Joker Game, rather than anything useful. “Dial your own cell phone number and Joker will grant your wish!” What would she even wish for? What would lead someone to want something so badly they turn to some mythical, wish-granting... whatever the hell Joker was supposed to be.

Lisa wasn't sure how much she believed the rumors, anyway. People _loved_ their gossip and they were always saying things that were definitively _not true_. She knew that better than anyone else.

“You got anything better than the Joker Game?” she asked. “Cause I think we've heard everything we can on that one.”

“Uh... You heard the one about Kashihara-sensei's kid that got expelled?”

“ _Everyone's_ heard the one about Kashihara-sensei's kid,” Sheba said. “He was transferred out a long time ago. Unless you're saying he got expelled from Kasu, too, or something?”

“Would explain why Sensei is stressed if he has been,” Mee-ho said.

“Uh... no. I actually haven't heard anything about him since he was transferred. Sorry, that's all I got.”

Lisa groaned in frustration. “Alright, let's find someone else then.”

* * *

 

“On your way home, girls?”

Lisa could have sworn a chill went down her spine as she stepped into the first-floor hallway. Quietly, she turned around to look Principal Hanya in the eye. _Why_ couldn't he have been in his office? “No, sir. We weren't leaving yet.”

“Then what are you doing? Class is over.”

“Uh... We were just asking around for some info on stuff?”

“Not planning on cheating on any exams, are we?” he asked. Before Lisa could protest that it had nothing to do with her schoolwork, he continued. “What are your names and what classes are you in?”

“Shibata Mami! 2-C!”

“Ogishima Miho! 2-C!”

She had to wonder why they were so enthusiastic to answer his question. “Lisa Silverman. Also 2-C.”

The look the principal gave her made her profoundly uncomfortable. “Ah... so you're the girl he mentioned...” he muttered. “You must have been the source of that resonance earlier, too... Ah, well then... I'll leave you alone. He'll come for you soon enough. Enjoy what remains of your youth, I suppose.”

As he walked off, the three girls looked at each other in confusion.

“What... What the fuck,” Lisa said flatly. “What was that creep going _on_ about?”

“You shouldn't call him that!” Mee-ho said, strangely defensive. “Principal Hanya is a great man!”

“... You heard what he just said, right? That thing about 'enjoy what remains of your youth.'”

“You should listen to him,” Sheba replied.

Lisa scowled. “I... Sheba. He said 'what remains.' Like, implying that _not much_ remains. And who's this 'he?'”

“I... I don't know. C'mon, let's get back to what we were doing.”

“No, Sheba! This is serious! What the hell was he talking about?”

“Just ignore it, Lisa!”

* * *

 

Lisa stepped out into the courtyard. Having covered the entire classroom building, this was the only place left to check. A few people were loitering around still and hopefully one of them would know something.

“Oh, those are the guys I heard talking about it in the hall!” Mee-ho said, pointing to a group of three huddled in the corner. “C'mon!” As the trio approached, they could see the others looked concerned. “Hey, we wanted to know more about the challenge letter from Kasu!”

The group looked at each other. The girl, wearing an orange second-year ribbon, chewed on her lip. “It's... not good.”

“Not good?” Sheba asked.

“It's from Mishina Eikichi. Kasu's Undie Boss.”

“Okay...”

“They say they've kidnapped a Sevens student,” said the boy wearing an orange tie. “They're holding her hostage until the guy this letter is for shows up at Sumaru Prison.”

 _“What?”_ Lisa asked.

“It gets worse,” the second boy, wearing a first-year's green tie, added. “The letter? Was addressed to one of the _drop-outs_.”

“Surely not Yoshizaka-sempai?” Sheba asked. “She was never one for gang fights.”

“No, it's for the other guy.”

“Why would they send a letter to a drop-out student?” Mee-ho asked. “Especially one who nobody's seen in months?”

“Maybe they didn't get the memo that he dropped out?” the girl suggested. “I mean, I recall he _was_ pretty popular when he actually bothered to be here... though, ever since he started third year, most people barely saw him even before he stopped showing up. Maybe they just didn't hear about him dropping out and decided to challenge him based on his reputation?”

“But he's not here to get the letter,” Sheba said. “Oh, this is... this is bad. This is very bad.”

Mee-ho puffed out her cheeks, a sign that she was thinking. “Can't we... call the police or something? Kidnapping's illegal.”

“You don't _call the police_ on a _gang fight_ , Mee-ho,” Lisa said. “It goes against the rules and getting them arrested will just cause Kasu to try something even worse.”

“There are rules?”

“Anyway... Somebody's gotta launch a rescue mission.”

The first-year boy looked nervous. “Yeah but... It's not just _any_ Kasu student. It's the _boss_.”

She scoffed. “Pfff, yeah. The _Undie_ Boss. Dude got the position by pantsing people. I bet he's a wimp in a real fight. I bet _I_ could take him.”

“Oh no...” Sheba muttered.

“Are you sure about that?” the boy asked. “I mean, yeah, that's how he got his reputation but... Kasu students, in general, are pretty scary, you know? And they still say that he's super strong...”

“Maybe he'll let her go if he finds out that the student dropped out?” Mee-ho suggested.

Lisa narrowed her eyes. From the sound of things, Mishina Eikichi was just some low-grade jerk who talked a big enough game to make people afraid of him. Was everybody in the school that scared of doing the right thing and knocking him down a peg? “Actually, you know what? I'll do it. You said he's waiting at Sumaru Prison, right? I'll go down there and take care of it myself.”

Sheba sighed. “I was afraid you were gonna do that... Lisa, this _isn't_ a good idea.”

“And who _else_ is gonna do it? Clearly nobody else at this school. Look, it's possible that Mee-ho's right and the guy's got enough honor to let her go when he learns the letter was never gonna reach the recipient. If not... then I'll give him the death of a thousand fists!”

“You realize that you don't... _actually_ know kung fu, right? You just watch a lot of movies and imitate them.”

Lisa bit her lip. She _had_ made the declaration rather hastily but still... “We can't just leave her there. Someone has to go and it's clearly not gonna be the guy the note is for. Besides... I bet he has something to do with the emblem curse. Maybe we can get some answers about it out of him.”

“... Alright... Then I'm coming with you. I won't just let you go off and do something so dangerous by yourself.”

“Me too!” Mee-ho declared. “I wanna help! Or at least give moral support. Also, I don't want to stay here where the curse can get me. But mostly I wanna help!”

“Let's go.” Lisa turned back around to go into the school. Students hanging around in the entranceway and by the shoe lockers gave her startled looks at the sheer determination on her face. She ignored them as she made her way straight for the school's front gate. She had an Undie Boss to fight.

* * *

**August 6 th, 1999 – Sumaru Prison, Hirasaka**

 

Lisa pushed the door to Sumaru Prison open with more force than was probably necessary. She wasn't sure how she felt about the idea of fighting a gang boss on her own but someone had to do it and, clearly, nobody else had been willing to step up... Oh, who was she kidding? She was secretly terrified at the idea of fighting the infamous Kasugayama gang boss on her own. She made her choice, though, and she was going through with it.

Behind her, Sheba and Mee-ho looked nervous. That was fair, as they had no experience in fighting at all, unlike her, who had watched dozens of hours worth of Bruce Lee movies. That counted as knowing how to fight, didn't it? It had to if she wanted this to go well.

The radio static noise was back. Was it a problem with her hearing, maybe? If she weren't so focused, she'd ask the others if they could hear it too. As it was, there would be time to deal with her possible sudden acquirement of tinnitus later.

There were four Kasu students down on the ground, the tallest of which had to be the famed Mishina Eikichi, as well as Hanakouji Miyabi, better known as Kozy, from her own class. Miyabi, for her part, looked surprisingly okay, as if she was totally unconcerned with having been apparently kidnapped. Eikichi looked to be having an argument with the other Kasu students.

“If we wait just a little longer, I'm sure he'll show!” one of them was saying. “Er... oh shit...”

The remaining two looked panicked by his statement. Eikichi looked around at them, some kind of realization dawning on him. “Hey... what's this about? What are you three scheming?”

“Wait, did you _not_ send that letter?” Lisa asked as she descended the stairs. “Well damn. What was the point in coming here, then?”

Eikichi turned and looked at her. Apparently, the guy thought he was just that attractive because his voice became a lot more flirtatious. “Oh? Have some lovely ladies decided to come see the great Michel in action?”

“Mishina Eikichi, I take it?” she asked rather flatly, hoping that it was clearly conveying her disinterest.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah! Do I got you, babe? Allow me to introduce myself as the genius artist Michel, spreading love to ladies around the world! Hoooooo!”

She squinted at him. “What... are you smoking?” Did he seriously think he was gonna seduce her or something?

“Gross,” Mee-ho commented.

“What was that, you little-!” he started, prompting Lisa to step forward defensively.

“Look, I'm just here to deliver a message that your little challenge note wasn't ever gonna reach its recipient,” she said. “That's. All.”

“Challenge note? I didn't send any...” He turned to look at the other three students. “Did you guys...?”

“Um...” the student in the red shirt said. “Please forgive us! We used Kozy-san as a hostage to lure out one of the Sevens students!”

“Well, that was pointless,” Sheba said before any further explanation could be given. “The guy you're talking about dropped out. Months ago. Word must not have reached you guys. Honestly, most of us at Sevens have chosen to just forget about him.”

“Oh... Really? We were hoping to recruit him into the band,” the largest of the boys said.

“We thought he would have been a good fit...” the last guy said. “We know how excited you were to start one, Michel-san. From what he heard, he seemed to be pretty cool...”

Eikichi looked oddly emotional over this. “Y-you guys were willing to...”

“Well, find a different band member,” Lisa interrupted. “And give us back Kozy-san. And don't hold people hostage to recruit band members. That's fucked up.”

“I'm fine,” Miyabi said. “So... if you guys were _lying_ about telling me about the emblem curse, then... I'm gonna go...” She stood up and walked over to join the other three Sevens students.

“Ugh...” Lisa muttered. “Talk about an anti-climax. I can't believe this wasn't even an actual gang fight.”

“Aw... I was sort of excited to watch you fight him,” Mee-ho said. “I mean, I guess it's good that there was no fight but I wanted to see you punch him.”

“Aw, you thought your friend could take me?” Eikichi asked. “Cute.”

Lisa rolled her eyes. “Oh please, _Undie Boss_. I could _take you_ with one arm tied behind my back.” Sheba made a high-pitched noise of distress at her taunting. “I've heard the rumors. You became boss by pantsing people, didn't you? Isn't that kinda pathetic?”

Mee-ho covered her face while Sheba bit into a clenched fist. The three Kasu students surrounded Eikichi, all looking very panicked.

“Undie... Boss...” he muttered as he stared at the ground, eyes growing dark.

The static noise, which had been ringing in her head the whole time, suddenly grew more intense. She realized it wasn't static but the voice from earlier, murmuring quietly. “Wh-what's... happening?” she muttered. “My... head...”

Eikichi suddenly looked back up at her with a glare. An unnatural, bright blue light surrounded him. “Don't! Call me! Undie Boss! My name is Mishina Eikichi! And I'm! The Death Boss!” The light formed itself above his head, taking solid and vaguely humanoid shape. “If you _want_ to fight, then fine!”

“ _I am Rhadamanthus... the judge of the netherworld,”_ the spirit cried. _“I shall sever your foes' sins with my blade of judgment!”_

She yelled and stepped back as the murmuring became cacophonic.

“ _Heed my call!”_ the voice from earlier cried, sharp and clear.

“H-Haime?” Was this really the time for her to be hearing voices again?

A similar halo of blue suddenly surrounded her. It felt warm and familiar. The light formed itself into a winged figure with a heart-shaped bow.

“ _I am thou...,”_ it said. _“Thou art I... From the sea of thy soul, I cometh. I am Eros, whose golden arrows kindle love's flames!”_

“How... How can you use it, too?” Eikichi asked, shocked. “How?”

There was glow and what looked to be a large stone formed from Eros, throwing itself at him. At the same time, Rhadamanthus summoned a spout of water to hit her, fast and hard. The attacks connected at the same time and both of them collapsed onto the floor.

Her eyelids suddenly felt very heavy. It seemed like someone, not Eros but someone else was calling out to her. The spirits both vanished as she slipped into a state of unconsciousness, barely hearing the cries of distress from the others in the room.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lisa is the protag so she gets The Protag Awakening.


	2. Act 1: Joker

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The writing will both improve and also take longer once I hit more divergences. And a dungeon.
> 
> Happy birthday, Lisa. I made sure to have this one finished today for your sake.

**August 6 th, 1999 – Unknown Location**

 

“Where... are we?” Lisa asked. The environment was strange and misty. Intangible. It was as if the tower-like building they were standing in was the only solid thing around.

“Not sure,” Eikichi replied.

A silver butterfly flew down from the ceiling and fluttered in front of them. It glowed brightly, before taking the shape of a young man. He had black hair tied back into a ponytail and wore simple black clothing. He would look utterly unremarkable if not for the mask on his face. It covered everything except for the area around the left side of his mouth and cheek, the skin of which looked pale, and his left eye, which was a plain brown. A silver butterfly wing decoration protruded from the right side of the mask.

“Welcome to the gulf between consciousness and unconsciousness,” he said. “My name is Philemon. … Or have you forgotten?”

She blinked. “Philemon...?” Had she heard that name somewhere before? Had she seen this man before? It felt almost like she had.

“I see you've discovered your power of Persona.” They glanced at each other, then back at him as he continued to speak. “The power to summon the selves within you. The gods and demons that exist in all humans. The self suffused with divine love. The self that is capable of demonic cruelty. People live by wearing different masks. Your current self is only one of these innumerable masks. Your Persona is also among your countless selves.”

“That's... me?” Eikichi asked. “... What are you?”

Philemon seemed to ignore his question. “From here on, you will face a fearsome entity which threatens your existence. It hails from time out of mind and beyond oblivion... The land of Sumaru is now a netherworld where rumors become reality. The battle has begun...”

Lisa and Eikichi looked at each other. She was fairly certain he was in the same state of total confusion as her.

“I summoned you here to tell you this,” Philemon continued. “Now go forth with your Personas and break the chains of karma laid out against you.”

The area started to fade around them and Lisa could feel herself being pulled away to somewhere else. She wanted to yell for it to stop and that she needed more answers but she knew in her heart that she wouldn't get them. She simply stared at the tower shrinking away as her consciousness was pulled back to the real world.

* * *

**August 6 th, 1999 – Sumaru Prison, Hirasaka**

 

“Lisa? LISA!”

She blinked her eyes a few times as she realized Sheba and Mee-ho were kneeling over her.

“Oh thank goodness,” Sheba said. “You both passed out. We didn't know-”

“Yeah, hold on,” she interrupted. She stood up and looked over at Eikichi, who was being pulled to his feet by Miyabi.

“That wasn't a dream, was it?” he asked.

“About the guy in a mask? He called those things... Personas?”

“And the part about rumors coming true and the stuff about the future?” At her nod of confirmation, he grew contemplative. “That's too similar to be a coincidence... Was it real then?”

“What are you talking about?” Sheba asked.

Lisa held a finger against her lips. Were rumors really becoming reality? Hey, wait... “You wanna try the Joker Game?”

Eikichi looked confused. “The thing where you call your own cell and it shows up? Why would I want to try that? Why change the subject?”

“To test if that was just a dream... or something more. That's one of the most popular rumors in the city. If it works, then all of that was real.”

“I'll pass. There's no way all that could be possible.”

“That's why I'll prove it. Are you scared or something?”

She expected him to get angry at the comment but he just shook his head. “If you say so... It does feel like we should be doing something after a dream like that. Let's see if this is all for real.”

* * *

“Are you sure you don't wanna help, Sheba?” Mee-ho asked.

Sheba, standing by the stage, held her hands up. “No thanks. I've had enough with getting involved in Lisa's crazy ideas for one day. I'll stay right here with... uh...”

“Hamasaki Ken,” said the boy standing next to her.

“Yeah, him.”

Miyabi and Eikichi stood a little closer than Sheba and Ken to where Lisa and the others were preparing, though both were sitting out of playing the game themselves. That left Mee-ho and the other two Kasu boys, Shogo and Takeshi, to help her out. Miyabi looked somehow nervous about the idea.

“Well, here goes,” Lisa said. “Joker, Joker, please come here...” She felt incredibly stupid doing the chant but some people said you needed that as well as calling your number so she had to do it.

The group of four separated and walked off in four different directions. She pulled out her cell and quickly dialed her own number. When she pressed the call button, there was no busy line like one would expect. It seemed to be ringing on the other end.

“No way...” she muttered. It really was calling someone. Did she input her number wrong or was it actually calling Joker?

“Did it work?” Ken asked.

There was a click on the other end. Did someone answer? “Um... Hello?” she asked.

Something flashed behind her. She could see Ken, Sheba, Miyabi, and Eikichi look startled by something out of the corner of her eye.

“I'm here,” a monotone voice said. She turned around in shock. There, standing between the four of them that had played the game, was a person who hadn't been there before.

He was dressed in some manner of black hooded tunic with a jacket. The rest of his clothing was black, too, save for stripes on the jacket sleeves. His left arm had a green stripe and a red stripe on the wrist. The right side had the same stripes but colored in yellow and blue. The hood of his tunic was pulled up and he looked to be wearing some kind of cowl under it, to completely hide his head.

The blackness of his clothing was, however, greatly contrasted by the mask on his face. A golden mask, like something you could see at a masquerade party, covered his entire face. It was carved with a blank, stony-looking expression. Black lines, like eyeliner or something, outlined the eye holes and made it clear that unless she was seeing things, his eyes were  _yellow_.

And all that wasn't to ignore the inexplicable katana on his back. What was that about?

“I'm Joker,” the man said. “If you've called me, then you have a wish that you want to be granted. What is it?”

Shogo and Takeshi both looked panicked and Mee-ho seemed stunned. Lisa collapsed on the floor, dropping her phone which slid away into a corner. Joker was real? The rumor was real? Then that dream... was _real_?

The silence was broken by Miyabi. “Say something!” she cried, looking scared. “You have to tell it your wish! The rumor says that those who don't get turned into shadowmen!”

Joker tilted his head. “She's right. You took too long.” He produced a strange, translucent white skull from seemingly nowhere. “Rules of the game.”

The skull glowed eerily. Lisa covered her eyes as Mee-ho screamed. When she opened them again, Shogo, Takeshi, and Mee-ho looked... faint. As if they weren't fully on this plane of existence anymore. Their faces were blank and expressionless.

Eikichi stepped forward, looking angry. “Shogo! Takeshi! … And the other girl!” He turned to Joker. “You bastard... What did you _do_?”

The skull had vanished to wherever it had come from. Joker played with his sleeves as he looked Eikichi in the eye. “If they didn't make a wish, it means they thought whatever they dreamt to be impossible. Now they don't have to worry about hoping for an impossible dream. … They'll vanish in time. Forgotten. A shadow.”

"Hell no! Turn 'em back!"

Joker let go of his sleeve. “You shouldn't concern yourself with them." He unsheathed the sword he was carrying. "You'll be dead soon enough.”

There was the blue glow of a Persona being summoned and Lisa was overtaken by a cold feeling. Eros was screaming at her.

“I can't... move...” she said. “What are... you...?”

“Lisa Silverman and Mishina Eikichi,” Joker said, voice still emotionless. “I've waited a long time for this day.”

Sheba screamed and Ken yelled. Lisa barely heard them as the world around them seemed to fade, leaving only herself, Eikichi, and Joker. A pair what looked to be tiny imps wielding tridents materialized on either side of the sword-wielding maniac.

“What... are those things?” Lisa asked. Her mind was racing and Eros was babbling constantly, though she couldn't make out distinct words.

"Xaphans. They're demons. Real ones."

One of the Xaphans ran up to her to try and stab her with its weapon. The other attacked Eikichi and they both barely managed to dodge, ending up back-to-back. Eros yelled at her, crying to be summoned as she stood up straight. “Fanna! I'm not dying like this!”

Eros appeared above her as she fired off a Magna spell and took out one of the demons. Beside her, Eikichi summoned Rhadamanthus to cast Aqua. The water spell seemed even more effective than her own against the demon.

“Work with me!” he yelled. “If we attack together, maybe we can pull this off!” The two of them summoned their Personas but the attacks seemed to connect separately and had little effect.

Joker summoned his Persona, a strange humanoid figure of black and white. Just looking at it gave Lisa the chills. “You need at least three people for most fusion spells,” he said. “It was a fair idea... but doomed from the start, unfortunately. Now then... It seems that you're lacking one but I can take care of him later. For now, it's time for you both to _BURN_!” His voice changed from the emotionless monotone to one of screaming fury.

The Persona summoned a burst of fire and she blacked out for a moment. When her eyes opened again, she was on the ground with the tip of Joker's sword hovering at her throat. Eikichi was on the ground, a foot on his back holding him down. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the others. Miyabi was covering her eyes, while Sheba clung to Ken in terror.

“It was your fault,” Joker said, monotone once again. “Your idea. You're the one behind it.” He pushed the blade a bit closer and she did her best to scoot away in terror.

“What are you... talking about?” she asked. “I don't...”

He pulled the blade back, sticking it into the ground by her head, and leaned in. She could see now that his eyes weren't just yellow but also bore slit pupils, like a cat. “You know what I mean. What you did. I'll make you pay for it. I will make you _burn_ and _bleed_.”

“What the hell are you talking about...?” Eikichi asked.

“What did we ever do to you?” Lisa added.

Joker stood up straight, pulling his katana back out of the ground as he did so, and backed away, allowing both her and Eikichi to stand up. “You don't... You really don't  _remember_? How can you not remember!?" He looked between them, then started with the screaming again. "What is the _point_ in vengeance if you don't remember the crime?”

He walked over to the side of the room where the table and couch were, waves of anger rolling off of him and his free hand clenched into a fist. “... Fine. You escape this time. But the demons will come after you. You won't get a moment's rest until you remember the sin you've committed. And when the time comes that you _do_ remember... I will kill you. And I will enjoy every second of it.” He pulled something out of his pocket and tossed it to her. “Maybe that will jog your memory some.”

He vanished as quickly as he had appeared.

Lisa opened her palm to look at what he had thrown and was surprised to see an old keychain. It looked like a gachapon. Attached to the ring by a small chain was a plastic head that looked like the mask of a sentai show character. A black mask, specifically. It seemed familiar somehow like she had seen the character somewhere but couldn't quite recall where.

“... The fuck?” she said. “Why would he throw a...”

Eikichi slowly walked over to Shogo and Takeshi. “This is my fault... I'm sorry, guys. I shouldn't have made you play the stupid game.”

“Michel-san?” Ken asked. “Who... are you talking to?”

His head snapped up. "What do you mean 'who am I talking to?'"

“There's... no one there,” Sheba said. "Is there?"

Miyabi wrung her hands.

“But...” Lisa muttered, walking up to Mee-ho. “You have to be able to see her, right?”

“Lisa, I don't know-”

Her hands shook and she nearly dropped the keychain. “But then... Have they really been forgotten?”

This was too much. Way too much. She walked over to the corner to pick up her phone, then collapsed onto the couch, burying her face in her hands with the keychain dangling from her finger by the ring. Eros murmured in the back of her mind as she started to cry.

“Why...?” she muttered between sobs. “Why?”

Sheba, who still looked scared out of her wits to an extent, slowly sat down by her. “That was all... But why was Joker trying to kill you?”

Lisa looked up with tears in her eyes. “Weren't you-” She hiccuped. “Weren't you listening? _I don't know!_ What did I ever do to him that'd he want me dead?"

“Is he really gonna keep coming after you? He already nearly killed you just now... You can't fight him.”

Lisa looked down at the keychain. “... I think he will... I think I'm going to see him again and again until one of us is dead.” Her free hand closed into a fist around her skirt. “I won't let him win.”

“Lisa?”

She stood up, wiping her eyes. “F... Fine. If it's a fight Joker wants... It's a fight he'll get.” Eros murmured in approval. “I'm gonna find him. I'm gonna find Joker. I will make him fix this. I'll make him return anyone who he turned into shadowmen. And then...”

“And then?”

“... I don't know. Maybe I'll kill him first before he can kill me. Whatever happens, he won't win. He won't.” She avoided looking at the shadows as she crossed the room towards the stairs.

“Where do you plan to start?”

“I'm not sure...” She glanced at the keychain again.

“Hold on,” Eikichi interrupted. “I'm not letting you run off to fight that guy. Let me handle it.”

“Not a chance. If you want to come along, I won't stop you but _you're_ not gonna stop _me_.”

“Can't someone else handle this?” Ken asked. “Can't we call the police or something?”

“And tell them what?” Sheba asked. “That Joker is real and threatened them with a sword? That he can apparently summon demons?”

“She's right,” Eikichi said. “We're gonna have to do this ourselves. We gotta arm up and fight him together.”

Miyabi walked over, pushing her way into the conversation physically and literally. “If that's the case, then maybe I can help... I'll see what I can find out about Joker. While I do that, you should prepare to defend yourselves...”

“Defend themselves with what?” Sheba said.

“... I heard a rumor. The ramen shop over in Kameya Alley supposedly sells weapons. Something about the owner being a former spy.”

“That doesn't sound the slightest bit true.”

“Neither did the Joker Game,” Ken reminded her.

“... Right.”

Lisa nodded. “If rumors are coming true, then it's worth a shot. Our Personas alone don't seem too effective.”

“Oh!” Miyabi grabbed her and leaned in to whisper in her ear. “Could you... not let him know my real name?" She motioned to Eikichi. "Don't ask why. Just... please don't tell him.”

“Okay?”

“Thanks.” She turned to Ken and Sheba. “What are you two going to do?”

They both looked very unsure. Sheba wrapped her arms around herself. “I... I want to help. I do. I just... I can't fight.”

“I don't really...” Ken scratched the back of his head. "I mean, I've been taking boxing but I don't think..."

“Stay here,” Eikichi said. “Watch the place for me.”

“... Sure thing.”

“I'll stay, too,” Sheba said. “I'll help Kozy find info on Joker.”

Lisa nodded, then turned to make her way up the stairs.

“Good luck,” Miyabi said. “... Please be okay.”

* * *

**August 6 th, 1999 – Kameya Alley, Hirasaka**

 

Shiraishi Ramen was a small shop and there were few customers at the time. The most noticeable was a young man in a white suit, eating something that looked like it shouldn't be served as food and arguing with the woman behind the counter.

“I was a spy but that was so long ago,” she said. “I just run this ramen shop now. Why would I be selling weapons?”

“Ah-ah-ah,” the man replied. “I heard from the chief and Tamaki that the 'secret dish' is the password to getting an under-the-table deal.”

Eikichi looked over at Lisa as the man kept talking. “I've known her since I was a kid. I'm telling you, the chica was wrong. She just likes to make up stories about herself to tease customers.”

Lisa rolled her eyes, then approached the young man. “Hi. Can I ask you something? Where exactly do you work?”

He grinned. “I'm a detective whose beat is the darkness of the city.”

She squinted at him. "I asked _where_ you work."

“... The Kuzunoha Detective Agency.” He pulled out a business card and handed it to her. “It's here in Kameya Alley.”

“Cool, thanks.” She turned and walked out the door. “Let's go, Undie Boss! I wanna talk to this 'chief.'”

* * *

“Aiyah... Then the rumors about the weapons dealing and the secret dish... You guys spread those to screw with him?” Lisa covered her face with her hands. "Now what?"

The woman, Tamaki, shrugged. “We didn't spread them exactly. We just told Tadashi and then he ran his big mouth. I just thought it'd be funny to trick him into eating the grossest things she has to offer.”

Eikichi stood up from the couch. “I knew it was something like that. Anyway, it's not like rumors can magically come true. Like Joker. He must have always existed.”

Tamaki and the man, Todoroki, glanced at each other. “Can you give us any more details?” she asked. “We're investigating Joker, too.”

Lisa shrugged and gave them a brief rundown of the situation.

Todoroki nodded. “I see. The unusual incidents lately would make more sense if rumors were indeed becoming reality... Well, do you want us to spread the rumor about what the secret dish is?”

She grinned. It hadn't occurred to her that they could use this to their advantage. “Yeah! If rumors _are_ coming true, we can spread rumors that work in our favor!”

Once the paperwork was filled out, because apparently, that was necessary, Todoroki handed her a slip of paper with the words 'banana char siu ramen' on it. “Give a bit of time for the rumor to catch on, then go back and order that. It shouldn't take too long. The rumor bulletin board we posted it to is frequented quite a bit.”

“Thanks!”

* * *

“So now we kill time while the rumor spreads,” Eikichi said. “I'm telling you, it's not gonna work... Hey, are you listening?”

Lisa was not listening. “Do you see that? That... glow coming from the alley over there?”

“Uh...”

“I'm gonna check it out.” She walked into the back alley and found a glowing blue door that seemed to be connected to nothing. It was just standing in the open.

“Should we... touch that?” Eikichi asked.

“Worth investigating.” She opened the door and found herself in what looked like a lounge, colored entirely in blue. Four people were inside, all of them looking rather interesting. “Where is this?” She approached the long-nosed man sitting on the couch.

“Welcome to the Velvet Room,” he said. “Here, various aspects of man's soul are awakened. We have been waiting for you at the command of our master, Philemon. My name is Igor.”

“I am Belladonna,” sang the woman standing at a microphone. “I praise visiting warriors who challenge the monster known as thyself.”

The pianist with the blindfold continued to play as he spoke. “I am Nameless. A pianist who opens the shuttered doors of one's soul.”

The last man, who looked like a regular person, waved. “I'm a demon painter. My art depicts the gods and demons that dwell within man.”

She turned back to Igor. “We four have been charged with aiding you in awakening new souls: new Personas,” he said. “I am delighted to make your acquaintance.”

She was more than a little confused but bowed in greeting. “So... how does this work?”

“You will require tarot cards as a medium to summon Personas.”

“You want me to buy a pack of tarot cards?”

He laughed. “No, no. These are something more. You will have to acquire them from the demons.”

“Acquire them from- How?”

“You will see. In time.”

“... Thanks, that was useless.”

“Life is a journey and you must travel it yourself.”

“Yeah, yeah. Let's go, Undie Boss.”

* * *

After a stop at Gatten Sushi, where Lisa was introduced to Eikichi's terrifying father and also Yokouchi Kenta, a rumormonger salesman, they returned to Shiraishi.

“One banana char siu ramen,” Eikichi said, looking extremely uncomfortable.

Ma'am looked startled. “... I knew this day would come. These weapons are on the house as a farewell gift. Hm, let's see...”

As she walked into the kitchen, Lisa turned to him and mouthed the words 'farewell gift' in confusion. He shrugged. What the hell did the lady think they were planning to do with the weapons? Though, it probably couldn't be any weirder than what they _were_ planning to do.

Ma'am returned with a pair of fingerless gloves, a set of pink handguns, and what looked like a guitar case. “These are for you. The case is yours. The girl gets the guns. Feel free to take the gloves. I don't need them. Rules are rules, though. You gotta eat what you ordered or I'll pretend this never happened.”

Eikichi did not seem pleased by that.

* * *

“Haha, holy shit, that was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen,” Lisa said.

Eikichi swallowed the last of the ramen. “There. I choked it down.”

The door to the shop opened and Miyabi walked in, followed by Sheba. “Big news!” she said. “I talked to someone who witnessed Principal Hanya with a mysterious masked figure!”

“Haime?” Lisa asked. “I wonder if that's Joker... Come to think of it, Hanya _was_ saying some weird shit earlier... That stuff about 'he will come for you' and 'enjoy what remains of your youth.'” She looked at Eikichi. “Let's go to Sevens! Hanya might know something about Joker!”

“Right. Let's go.”

The group walked out of the shop into the street, weapons in hand. “Here, these are yours,” Eikichi said, handing her the guns.

“No thanks. Just... put them in your bag or something. I'll take the gloves.”

“What?”

She ignored him as she pulled the gloves on and gave a few test punches to the air. She'd imitated the movies lots of times but her punches seemed somehow steadier now as if Eros was guiding her. "... Yeah, I don't need those. This will work _just_ fine."

“I'll keep researching the relationship between Joker and rumors. Catch me if you need anything else,” Miyabi said, then walked off.

“Are you not gonna go with her?” Lisa asked Sheba.

Sheba shrugged. “... I'll stick with you for now. I still can't fight, though...”

“You want the guns?”

“Absolutely not. That's illegal.”

“Alright.” She looked over at Eikichi, who had apparently discovered the guitar case was actually a disguised machine gun. “We should get going while people are still at the school. We don't want to show up after everyone's left.”

"Shouldn't be too much of a problem," Sheba said. "People are going to be sticking around for those magazine reporters that are supposed to be coming in."

"You know, I had forgotten about that. Let's go get some answers out of Hanya!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Keychain**  
>  Joker left this old keychain as a message for Lisa and Eikichi. What is he trying to say with it?
> 
>  **Personas**  
>  Eros (Rank 1), Rhadamanthus (Rank 1)


	3. Act 1: The Pleiades

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi. i accidentally posted this chapter before i was done editing but cant be bothered to take it down.

**August 6 th, 1999 – Seven Sisters High School, Rengedai**

 

As Sheba had said, the school was still bustling despite how long it'd been since class let out. People were really eager about the possibility of being interviewed for Coolest it seemed. There was a lot of commotion that seemed unrelated to the reporters, though. Lisa had to wonder what happened.

She approached one of the third-year boys. “Hey, uh, sempai? What's going on?” she asked. “Did something happen or...?”

“You could say that,” he replied. “The big clock in the tower started moving again!”

Sheba and Lisa glanced at each other. Before either could ask if he was sure, there was the ringing of a bell, like the one that would be in the clock tower. The entire body of students hanging around the gates immediately started chattering amongst themselves, curious as to what this could mean.

"Wait, it's really working again?" Sheba asked in shock. "But..."

“What's the matter?” Eikichi asked. “Why all this fuss over a clock starting?”

“There's a lot of... stories... about the clock tower,” Sheba said. “About what'll happen if it started again. It's been broken for about a decade so for it to suddenly start again with no warning is... concerning.”

Behind her, the janitor started muttering in prayer.

Eikichi walked up to the man. “Take it easy, gramps!” he said. “There's no need to be scared. Long as I'm around, you got nothing to worry about!”

“No!” the janitor cried. “They've said time and time again that 'the world will end if time is not stopped!'”

“You mean Kashihara-sensei and Okamura-sensei, don't you?” Lisa asked, before turning to Eikichi to explain. “Okamura-sensei was the Japanese History teacher and was in charge of our homeroom. She was a bit of a loon and a couple of weeks back she just... vanished. Kashihara-sensei is a World History teacher for the third-years. He's nice and, from what I hear, a great teacher but... he does like conspiracy theories. Nobody's sure if he just enjoys reading them or actually believes that stuff.”

“He _is_ a great teacher,” the third-year said. “He's never talked about his theories with students or even with other teachers beyond Okamura-sensei, so it doesn't affect his job or whatever. And I'm pretty sure he probably wasn't talking about our school's _clock tower_ when he said that. Probably. Seems kind of far-fetched for that to be his meaning. Though, I think he is actually into that conspiracy stuff on some level. I've heard he used to be a lot more into it before his divorce and getting custody of Jun-san.”

The other students continued to babble. Some had even started theorizing it was connected to the emblem curse because nobody could ever shut their mouths. The last thing they needed was wild rumors going around since that was probably how the curse got started in the first place.

One of the first-year girls screamed and clutched her face, collapsing to the ground. When the others approached to see what was wrong, she looked up and half her face seemed to have melted off, in spite of her uniform missing its emblem. Sheba grabbed Lisa's arm, face going pale.

“The curse!” one of the other students shouted. “It's the emblem curse!”

Everyone screamed and scattered.

“Dude, what?” Eikichi asked. “Did that girl's face just...?”

“Kehhei!” Lisa shouted. “What's going on? Does this mean taking the emblems off our uniform isn't enough?" What were they supposed to do to ward it off now? "… Let's hurry and find Principal Hanya! We need to find some way to lift the curse before _my_ face gets all messed up!”

As soon as they entered the school, she could sense something was wrong. Eros murmured, telling her that things were distinctly _not normal_ in the building. It was a similar feeling to when Joker summoned those demons. Were there demons here, too? They hadn't even made it halfway across the entrance hall before they ran into a Slime.

What ensued was one of the most bizarre conversations Lisa had ever had in her life and the discovery of what Igor had meant when he said 'get tarot cards from demons.'

“... What was that all about?” Sheba asked.

“I'm not sure,” Lisa replied, holding the three Tower cards that the Slime had given her for listening to its lecture. “Apparently, we have to talk to demons regularly if we want new Personas. Hey, let's see if Principal Hanya is in the courtyard.”

* * *

Principal Hanya was not in the courtyard. At first glance, neither was his statue. Lisa wondered if someone had just made off with the thing but Sheba's frightened gaze and point to a spot behind her confirmed that, no, the statue was still in the courtyard. It was just walking around on its own. That particularly wild rumor had come true, it seemed.

All the trio could do was stand and watch it in shock for several moments. Kashihara-sensei, who was standing in the courtyard over by the Narurato Stone holding a book to his chest, seemed very distracted by the walking statue as well.

“... It's movin',” Eikichi finally said.

“Yep,” Lisa replied. “It's movin'.”

“So that settles it?”

“I think so.”

“Holy shit...” Sheba muttered. “I can't believe this is real...”

The statue stopped by Kashihara, who just stared at it before slowly opening his book. He looked back and forth between the book and the statue several times. By the time he stopped, he seemed to have grown even more tired than before. He closed the book and stared at the statue again.

“Uh... You alright, sensei?” Sheba asked.

"Yes, I'm fine,” he replied. “... You should go. This... might be dangerous. Maybe.”

“And the statue?” Eikichi asked.

“... I'll... find something to do about it." He scratched his temple with an index finger. "... Though I can't say I'm sure _what_ to do..."

"Right," Lisa said, grabbing Sheba's wrist. "Let's check and see if Hanya's in his office."

She just barely heard Kashihara muttering something about walking statues not being 'one of the signs' as they left.

* * *

Hanya wasn't even his office, though a couple of other students were. The students proceeded to mug Eikichi for his school emblem, since Kasu emblems were rumored to ward off the curse, and leave. Lisa just stood there and laughed. Sheba rubbed her arm nervously.

“Goddamn cursed creeps!” he said, standing up and glaring. “What's with this school? What did I do to deserve this?”

“Serves you right for coming to Sevens with a Kasu emblem on!”

“Lisa, please don't-” Sheba started.

“ _What!?_ Okay, back up, this whole thing happened because _you_ summoned Joker! So take some responsibility and do something about this!”

She stomped her foot. “Kehhei! Now you've crossed a line, buster! How was I supposed to know at the time what would happen!? You're not the one who nearly had their throat slit, anyway! And what's with all your big talk? You're just an Undie Boss who pervs on people by yanking their pants down!”

“Lisa, no-” Sheba tried again.

“That's rich, coming from you! You're a frickin' white girl but you talk Japanese when you're not spouting nonsense words! Do you even know what country you're from? Maybe I should give you a name that you can understand easier! You're Ginko from now on!”

“Fanna! No, you don't! You're not saddling me with a lame nickname like that!”

The door opened and they all paused as two adult women walked in. Eros started murmuring at their presence, telling her that these were distinctly not normal women for some reason.

“Ooh! Now what do we have here?” one of them asked. “Ciaaao! Wait a sec...” She paused and looked between them. “Hm, things seem to be getting steamy in here. C'mon, kids, not everyone wants to get caught in a lover's quarrel. Your friend there seems pretty uncomfortable.”

Sheba did look very uncomfortable.

“How is this a lover's quarrel!?” Eikichi and Lisa asked simultaneously.

“... Wait, _who_ are you?” Lisa continued. She had no desire to be lectured by a woman whose name she didn't even know.

The woman pumped her arms, grinning. “At times, I'm an ambitious reporter! Other times, a mild-mannered editor! But my true identity is... A rising star of Coolest magazine's editorial staff: Amano Maya! … Nice to meet you all.”

The other woman waved, looking much less exuberant than Maya. “I'm Mayuzumi Yukino. I'm a freelance photographer. An apprentice one, anyway.”

“Oh, you're the reporters who were supposed to be coming in,” Sheba said. "I guess you've... been here the whole time, huh?"

“So, what _are_ you guys here for?” Lisa asked, crossing her arms. “Why come to a high school?”

“We came here to do interviews for a special report we're working on,” Maya said. “It's called 'The Rumors of High Schoolers.'”

“I just... take photos of whatever they want me to photograph,” Yukino said.

“The emblem curse here at Sevens is one of the best-known rumors after the Joker Game, you know.” Maya shrugged and rubbed her forehead. “But it's been chaos since just after we got here! No one's been willing to give us an interview... Something about a clock tower...” Her head popped back up. “Can we interview you? Do you know anything? I would like to have _something_ go right this afternoon.”

Lisa steepled her fingers together. “Uhm... about that... We don't really know anything... Right, Sheba?”

Sheba nodded furiously. "Nothing at all! Just as confused as you are!"

Maya crossed her arms, scrutinizing them. “Hmmm... I'm not sure I buy that.”

“True stories, babes!” Eikichi said. “We're not looking for Sevens' principal and we certainly never got stomped by any Joker!”

Sheba buried her face in her hands while Lisa turned to glare at him.

“Stomped...?” Yukino asked. “So you kids _do_ know something!”

“If you're trying to cover it up, I take it that it's a pretty big scoop!” Maya added. “In which case... we're _definitely_ not letting you go! I have a deadline to meet.”

“Now hurry and fess up or I'll make you regret it!”

Lisa never thought she'd be threatened by a pair of reporters, but she'd been spending her afternoon being threatened by a lot of things. She was starting to get used to it by now, which was mildly concerning in itself.

Before the confrontation could go anywhere, the door opened and a pair of demons wandered in. They looked like zombies, really, wielding knives and looking haggard. Sheba ran behind the desk. Maya and Yukino both stepped back in shock.

“Heehee...” one of the zombies said. “Found... jouuuuu... Jo... Joker's ordersssss... You kidsh... Kill kill kill killllll!”

“Shit!” Yukino cried as the world faded again. “I _knew_ I sensed something off about this place!”

“Look out!” Eikichi shouted. “You gotta stay back, ladies! I'll handle this!”

One of the zombies tried to attack Maya, who ducked behind Yukino to dodge.

“What was that for?” she asked. “School violence is so passe, I'll have you know!”

“Maya-san, these guys aren't human anymore!” Yukino said, stepping between her and the zombie. “They're demons! You have to run!”

“D-demons!?” Maya asked. “But if I run... Then you...”

“I'll handle this, so get going! Let's see, it's been a while but here goes...”

Before she could finish, Maya suddenly shoved her way back in front. “You can hear me right!?” she shouted. “My guardian angel... Come to me!”

There was the now-familiar blue glow of a Persona being summoned and a pink figure rose above her head. Looking at was almost opposite to looking at Joker's Persona. It made Lisa feel warm and safe.

 _"I am Maia..."_   it said. _"The workings of the Pleiades shining in the heavens shall be yours, bearer of the full moon...”_

A flash of light took out one of the zombies.

Yukino seemed shocked but then shook her head and turned to the other zombie. “P... Persona!”

The blue glow appeared under her feet and yellow-and-orange figure materialized above her.

“ _I am Vesta... In your destiny to accompany your true love and lead the lost ones, I shall protect you with my flame...”_

A burst of fire took out the other zombie and the world returned to normal. Sheba popped her head up from behind the desk. “What just happened?” she asked. “Are you... alright? Lisa, you're...”

“Is everyone okay?” Maya asked, turning to look at the three teenagers. “Whoa! ... Were you that scared?”

“Huh?” Lisa wiped her face, which was running with tears. “Why... Why am I crying...? It's so... strange... but I can't stop.”

Eikichi was crying, too. “It's... like a nice memory. Warmer than what I felt with Ginko... Like a hug from my mom...”

Maya shook her head. “How weird... I felt it too. What was that wave of nostalgia...?”

Yukino stepped up. “Could you elaborate? I know more than you'd think about demons. Maybe I could help you out a bit.”

* * *

“So you all have the same powers I do, huh?” Maya asked. “Persona...”

“Uh, _they_ have it,” Sheba said. “I don't.”

“So it's not just my guardian angel... And wow! I can't believe you never told me about this, Yukki! This whole time we've known each other and you never mentioned it?”

Yukino shrugged. “I was hoping it wouldn't ever have to come up again in my life. I've been a Persona user since I played the Persona Game back in high school... Well, I say play. I actually stood and watched with Kei and Naoya while Brown, Yuka, Elly, and Mark played. But it counted for all of us who were in the room, so we all got Personas. That was... three years ago. We were all second-years in high school.” She turned to Lisa and Eikichi. “Have you guys ever played it?”

“Persona game...?” Lisa's mind drifted off. Had she played a 'Persona game'? Surely not. No, she didn't know anything about how she came by a Persona.

“I played a kid's game like that in a dream once...” Eikichi said. “But...”

“A dream...?”

“Lisa, right?” Yukino asked. “Know anything about this?”

She paused, then shook her head. “No, nothing. I've never played any game like that.”

Maya frowned, tugging on her ear. “I... played the Persona game with my roommate when we were in high school but... that was...” She trailed off. “Well, we can save the origin stories for later. Let's focus on where we should go from here!”

“You're gonna help?” Sheba asked.

“Of course! You three are chasing Joker himself, right? If we could catch him, that'd be one hell of a scoop!”

“I'll tag along,” Yukino added. “Now that I know this guy's in cahoots with demons, I can't sit back and do nothing.”

“Hold on a sec!” Lisa said. “Our only lead is Principal Hanya and he's not here. There's nothing for us to do even if you come along.”

“Then let's start by putting an end to this madness!” Maya declared. “If the principal is behind the chaos like you think he is, won't that draw him out of hiding?”

Yukino crossed her arms. “But, Maya-san, how are we supposed to deal with this? Do you have any ideas?”

She paused in thought, tugging on her ear again. “... I know! Let's destroy all the emblems in the school. Getting rid of the cause of the problem should help, right?”

“Well, if rumors are coming true, the curse should be lifted once the emblems are gone. But could that really be happening...? Even from the things I've seen, it sounds a little far-fetched.”

“Think positive, guys! Even if it doesn't work out in the end, we have to at least give it a shot! If I remember right, Sevens' emblem is based on the Pleiades, yeah? That design must show up somewhere else besides the emblems on the school uniforms. Let's look for it!”

“Like... the clocks in our classrooms?” Lisa suggested. “Their faces have the same design as our emblem.”

Eikichi looked pumped. “Okay, friends and enemies of modern music! Our fleeting youth isn't going to wait while we stand around. Let's hurry up and find those emblems!” Just as everyone turned to walk out the door, he held up a hand. “Oh, wait, hold on!” He rummaged around in his bag and pulled out the handguns from earlier, presenting them to Maya and Yukino. “Here! These two didn't want them.”

Maya took the guns, looking entirely too excited to be holding a pair of lethal weapons. “This is so cute! Can I really have one? Hey look, Yukki, they're a matching set!” She held them up for her partner to see.

Yukino looked less than excited. “You... want me to use a pink gun? Uh, sorry... but I'm already carrying my favorite weapon.” Out of her pocket, she produced what looked like dangerously sharp razorblades. "I'll be fine. Besides, I prefer shotguns if I _am_ gonna be carrying firearms."

"Okay! I'll just use them both then!"

"Do you know anything about how to wield guns?" Sheba asked Maya. "I just... think..."

"She'll be fine. Most of us had never even seen an actual weapon in real life before we got our Personas. It makes you proficient fairly quickly."

"... Huh."

"Hey, guys!" Maya interrupted. "Let's ask the other students for help and make everything go faster!"

* * *

Once they had made the suggestion of destroying the clocks, it spread around the school like wildfire. Anyone and everyone were willing to lend a hand in possibly getting rid of the curse, leaving them to only have to destroy a handful that others couldn't get.

In 3-D, they found a bunch of students gathered around a bespectacled boy with dusky purple hair. He had gathered a pile of assorted office supplies and other small objects on the desk next to him and was chucking them at the clock. The ground below it was littered with various items that he had already thrown.

“What's the deal here?” Sheba asked.

One of the students, Tsukikage Fuyuko, shrugged. “Nobody can reach the clock, so Takuya-kun's been throwing random objects at it in hope of knocking it down.” She motioned to the purple-haired boy. “As you can see, he has... not succeeded.”

“I'm gonna get it, I swear!” Takuya said, throwing erasers. The few that hit the clock just bounced off it harmlessly

Fuyuko shook her head slowly. “One of the others went to get a broom to knock it down. Honestly, I don't see why we need to bother breaking the curse. It's been fun. Really shook things up around here.”

“Don't listen to her! She's just way too into the paranormal!” The pencil he threw didn't even make all the way to the wall before falling on the floor.

“... Okay,” Lisa said.

Fuyuko clapped her hands together. “Hey, since you're here anyway, do you wanna hear a ghost story?”

“We have better things to do.”

“Aw... I got a good one about that arson fire at the old shrine, though! The guy said to be behind it was super creepy, too!”

Lisa stiffened. “... No. No, I don't want to hear it. We're leaving.” She grabbed Sheba's wrist and turned to walk out the door right as Takuya chucked a stapler at the wall.

"What was that about?" Sheba asked once they were back out in the hallway.

She shook her head. "Nothing important. We just don't have time to waste on some stupid ghost story. Let's go check out the second floor."

* * *

In 2-B, Noriko had pushed a chair to the wall and then climbed on it to grab the clock. She looked over at Lisa, who was checking the classroom with Maya, then threw the clock at the ground with all the strength in her tiny body. It shattered into several pieces.

“I didn't think we'd find you helping out,” Lisa commented. "I thought you would have left to look for Yoshizaka-sempai again. Or that you would be out at the track field."

“Clubs were canceled this afternoon but nobody's allowed to leave until the committee meeting's over," she explained as she climbed down from the chair. "They're talking about the curse and what to do about it. That means that the faster it's dealt with, the sooner I can leave to look for Onee-sama. I still need to get her shoes back to her..."

“Well, thanks for the help, I guess."

“Have you gotten all the emblems in here?” Maya asked.

Noriko nodded. “Uh-huh.”

“Great, thanks. We'll get going now. You should probably pick up the pieces of the clock before somebody hurts themselves.”

They turned around and left the classroom, heading to where Sheba, Eikichi, and Yukino were checking out 2-C. In there, they found Eikichi enthusiastically questioning some of the school newspaper members about Miyabi while Sheba looked nervous.

“What's the deal here?” Lisa asked. "Why's he harassing the newspaper club?"

“Uh...” Sheba scratched her cheek. “So... It turns out that Kozy is his ex-girlfriend from middle school... but he doesn't know she is because she didn't tell him her real name and also it was apparently before she gained all that weight and dyed her hair... One of the club members mentioned her so now he's all excited because he didn't know she was a Sevens student.”

“Wait, really? Huh... She asked me not to tell him her name. Guess that must be why. You haven't told him?”

“Obviously not yet. Uh, _s_ _hould_ we tell-”

“She asked us not to say anything. Clearly, something happened between them and she doesn't want him to know about her again.”

Sheba looked at her, then shrugged. “... I wonder what caused them to break up if it's that serious.”

“Yeah... who can say?”

* * *

“Is that the last of the emblems?” Lisa asked as they left the first-year classrooms. There hadn't been anything of note in there, other than noticing that more and more people were succumbing to the curse. All the more reason to break the curse before she fell victim.

“I don't think so...” Sheba said. “I feel like we're missing some.”

“I heard there were some clocks in the teacher's lounge,” Yukino supplied. “That should be the last place to check, though. We've cleared out all the classrooms.”

“Assuming they actually took out the one in 3-D,” Lisa said. “Let's go to the teacher's lounge and get this over with.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tsukikage Fuyuko is my favorite incredibly minor NPC and I wanted to cameo her. It was very necessary and, yes, she actually does get disappointed when you break the curse.


	4. Act 1: The Clock Tower

* * *

Inside the teacher's lounge, there were a few students and teachers milling around and chattering.

A woman in a yellow suit raised her hand, trying to get people's attention. “Hey!” Once everyone was looking at her, she continued. “Enough is enough! Stop letting random rumors push you around!" She rubbed her temples. "Honestly... What a headache...”

Yukino did a double-take, then ran around the desk to greet the woman. “Saeko-sensei? What are you doing here?”

“Y-Yukino...?” Saeko-sensei asked, looking up. “Oh... It really is you, Yukino! I transferred here last year. But never mind me. What are _you_ doing here? Don't tell me you're redoing high school...? Your grades at graduation were just fine.”

Yukino laughed. “Oh, no, I'm on an assignment! I have a part-time job as an assistant photographer with Coolest, so I came to cover a story with Maya-san.”

She pointed over to Maya, who waved.

“You two know each other?” Lisa asked.

“She was a student of mine at my last school,” Saeko-sensei said. “I... Your timing in coming here wasn't very good, I'm afraid. As you can see, we're in... a bit of a crisis...”

Yukino nodded. “Yeah, about that... There's something I need to tell you.”

* * *

“A rumor caused all this? Then the curse will lift when the emblems are gone. … Alright, I'll help, too!” Saeko-sensei looked over at Lisa and Sheba. “I'll take full responsibility here to make sure you two don't get in trouble. You have my blessing to go and destroy all the emblems.”

Lisa had to wonder at her willingness to believe Yukino on such a crazy story. She hadn't even seen any demons or anything! Still, it wasn't a good idea to question one's blessings. She took a broom offered to her by one of the students and set to work knocking down the last of the clocks. All-in-all, it only took maybe two or three minutes.

“Okay, my lovelies!” Eikichi said after she'd broken the last of them. “That should be the last one!”

“That means everyone should get better!” Saeko-sensei said, turning to look at the bandaged students.

The students all checked their own faces. They had not, apparently, magically gotten better.

“Huh, that's weird,” Maya said. “I really thought that'd get rid of the curse... Did we overlook something?”

"Are they maybe still struggling in 3-D?" Sheba suggested. "I know Tsukikage-sempai said they were getting a broom but..."

Lisa paused, then punched her hand. “Oh man, I think we're forgetting the biggest one... The giant clock in the clock tower! It's still there!”

“... Well, how are we gonna break that one? It's huge!”

The intercom buzzed to life.

“ _Ahem!”_ came Principal Hanya's slimy voice, making Lisa instinctively scowl. _“Attention, all students! You will immediately cease all destructive activity within school grounds! As principal, everyone **must** obey my orders! Do you hear me? You will treat __**my**_ _Seven Sisters High with respect!”_

“Fuck off!” Lisa shouted.

“I suppose we have no choice if the principal says so...” Saeko-sensei said, furrowing her brow. “Come on, everyone! The emblem hunt is over. Let's start cleaning up.”

Sheba grabbed one of the brooms and started sweeping up the broken pieces of the clocks.

“Hey, why are you listening to him!?” Lisa asked.

“I... should? Cause he's our principal and all and..."

“Damn Hannya,” Yukino muttered. “The hell did he do? … But if everyone's like this, there's not much we can do. Anyway, don't we have a big clock to go break?”

“Wait,” Lisa said. “The clock tower stays locked. We should find the key first. It's probably in here somewhere. Let's ask.”

The others didn't move.

“... Oh, right. I'll ask. Because  _I'm_ a Sevens student and none of you are.”

Saeko-sensei didn't know where the key was. Neither did Lisa's English teacher, who tried to stop her to ask about her extremely poor grades on her last test. She narrowly managed to escape that. Eventually, she managed to get a response from, of course, the _very last_ teacher she tried asking.

“The clock tower key? Well, Kashihara-san usually carries the teacher's copy but I'm fairly certain Principal Hanya took it from him earlier. The only other copy is the janitor's.”

“Thanks! Janitor's room, guys. Let's go.”

* * *

After several wasted minutes of searching the janitor's room only to find that he had been carrying it the whole time, the group, now minus Sheba who was presumably still cleaning, made their way to the clock tower. As they got closer and closer to the stairs leading up, Eros got louder and louder. She seemed scared, somehow.

It was something she'd felt before. Was Joker in there? She was nowhere near ready to face him again. She opened and closed her fist several times, flexing the gloves.

“Are you ready?” Eikichi asked. Behind him, Maya and Yukino were checking their weapons in case there was the need for a fight.

“Y-yeah... Let's go.”

She unlocked the door with the key and pushed it open.

There didn't seem to be anybody there at first. Eikichi coughed.

“It's so dusty in here,” he said. “My perfect hair is going to get mussed... Looks like Hanya's not here either. Let's hurry and break the big clock so we can get outta here.”

Lisa shook her head. Eros was still chattering.

Laughter came from above them.

“Ugh... Hannya?” Yukino turned her gaze upwards. “Look up there!”

Of course. There was an upper section of the clock tower. She looked up to see Hanya but he wasn't alone. Floating in the air beside him, as if it were the most normal thing in the world to be _floating_ , was-

“Joker!” Lisa and Eikichi both shouted.

“That's Joker?” Maya asked.

“Principal Hanya!” Lisa shouted. “So you _were_ mixed up with Joker! The emblem curse and everyone acting weird is all because you teamed up with Joker, isn't it? I bet that's how you got summer break canceled, too! Fess up!”

“Foolish girl!” he said. “The 'emblem curse' is a divine punishment brought on by the students' poor conduct!”

“Bullshit!”

“You fools forget that you're students and waste your lives worrying about _dating_ and _fashion_! You brought this curse on yourselves! Though I'll admit that I didn't think the rumor Kasu started would come true... _But_ if they'd make a wish to Master Joker, the students' faces would return to normal in no time! Not only that but following Master Joker is the essence of having a chance at living a fulfilling life!”

Joker, who had remained silent the whole time, turned his face away.

“So what did he give you?” Yukino asked angrily.

Hanya laughed. “Me, you ask? My wish was to become a principal beloved by his students! … As well as this fine mane you now see.” He ran a hand over his hair.

Eikichi looked away from Hanya. “Joker! Weren't you out for revenge on us!? What's the point in granting a stupid geezer's wish!?”

Joker looked over at the ticking clock. “... It's none of your concern.” His voice was as monotone as ever. “You won't live long enough to find out. I won't let you – either of you _or_ him – destroy anything else. … I won't make that mistake again.”

Maya tilted her head, scrutinizing him.

“... The frozen time's been set free. It's begun. I'll come for your heads later. After you've remembered.”

Joker vanished.

“Dammit!” Eikichi shouted in anger. “You're not going anywhere!”

“He's already gone!” Lisa said. “Let's just break the clock!”

Hanya jumped down onto the turning gears with what looked to be an oversized wrench. “Okay, hold it right there!”

“Gah!” Eikichi said. “Get out of our way!”

“I don't want to hurt you!” Maya shouted as she cocked her guns.

“I do!” Yukino added.

“Come, fools! This tower will be your detention room! Glory to the Mask!”

Lisa said shifted into a fighting stance. “Kehhei! And you call yourself a teacher!?”

“Tough love must be applied to delinquent students! I'll teach you the dignity and authority of a proper principal!”

“That's enough out of you!” Yukino shouted, tossing one of her razor blades.

Lisa didn't know how she felt about using her Persona on him as she leaped onto the gears. Still, that was what she had her fists for. Reaching for his face was easier said than done, though.

Maya looked incredibly nervous about fighting a human, which was fair since they had only been fighting demons out in the hallways but jumped on anyway. She was the last to do so, which meant there were now five people ready to do battle on the moving gears of a clock tower.

If this wasn't already the most bizarre day of Lisa's life, it certainly was now.

Hanya tried to smack Eikichi with the wrench. Eikichi's response was to summon Rhadamanthus and hit him with a Straight Slash.

Yukino tossed a razor blade, while Maya cast a Dia on Eikichi.

That was when things got weirder. Hanya summoned a Persona.

“Whatever Drill,” he commanded and Lisa barely had time to register how lame of an attack name that was before she had to dodge.

Lisa summoned Eros. “Magna!” she shouted.

Eikichi, at the same time, tried to cast Straight Slash again. The Personas seemed to work in unison with their attacks, resulting in something entirely different than expected. Eros helpfully informed her that it was an Earth Slice EX fusion spell.

“Vesta!” Yukino shouted. “Agi!”

Hanya's Persona didn't take well to the fire spell and Yukino got a wicked grin on her face.

“My turn!” Maya said, summoning Maia. Her Hama didn't do anything. “Damn...”

“Chill Drill!”

Maya shouted as the attack hit and then she just... froze.

“Shit!” Yukino shouted. “Be careful of that spell!”

The three of them all tried to move at the same time.

“Rhadamanthus! Aqua!”

“Magna!”

“Agi!"

The massive wall of fire that resulted from the three Personas attacking together - Towering Inferno, Eros said - seemed to be extremely effective against Hanya and his Persona.

“I think I was right. He's got a fire weakness!” Yukino shouted. “Let's try and do that again! Hey, Maya-san, are you alright?”

Maya shook off her frozen state. “Yeah!”

“Dark Young Legend!” Hanya shouted. The spell seemed to just evaporate against Eikichi and Maya, while Lisa only barely felt it. Yukino was the only one properly affected.

“Try again, asshat!” Lisa yelled. “Everyone! Get in!”

They cast another Towering Inferno, while Maya healed herself.

“Under Drill!”

The attack went for Eikichi this time. He blinked and rubbed his head. When they tried to pull off the fusion spell, he cast Mudo instead of Aqua. All three attacks connected separately.

“Hey what the hell was that, Undie Boss!?” Lisa yelled.

“He's confused! We'll just have to try our best!” Yukino shouted.

“Maia!” Maya yelled. Her Persona struck with a new spell that they hadn't seen before. “Feral Claw!” Unlike Hama, this one seemed to connect and do, however small, some actual damage to him.

“Let's keep trying with the fusion spell!” Yukino said.

Lisa wasn't sure they could rely on Eikichi but had no better ideas.

“Aqua!”

“Magna!”

Hanya interrupted again with another strike of Whatever Drill. Why were his attack names so lame? Lisa had trouble taking the fight seriously. It went for Eikichi again.

“Agi!” Yukino finished, setting off the fusion spell again.

Hanya went for Maya with the wrench. She instinctively shot him and he fell to the ground as the group finally jumped off the gears.

“Hah!” Lisa said, turning to face him. “We won! Now tell us everything you know about Joker!”

Before Hanya could respond, the tower began shaking.

“Wh-what the-!?” Eikichi yelled.

“Careful, everyone! It's collapsing!” Yukino grabbed Lisa and tried to shield her as various parts of the clock tower started falling out of place. Maya attempted similar with Eikichi but his height made the situation something of the reverse, with him covering her instead.

After several moments of being rained on by bits and pieces of machinery, with Eros assisting in protecting her as well, it slowed down. For a moment it seemed like that was it, only for the clock face to fall out and shatter on the ground.

Everyone paused, waiting for it to continue, but it seemed to be over.

“Okay, ow...” Maya said. “Is everyone okay?”

Hanya stood up, then started backing away.

“Hey!” Eikichi said. “Wait, you bastard!”

“Guidance sessions are over for today! As long as you defy Master Joker, you will never find peace!” He turned and jumped out of the hole where the clock had been, screaming as he fell.

“... Isn't this the fourth floor!? … Eh, I doubt even that would kill him.”

Everyone stared in silence for a moment, unsure of how to process what had just happened.

“Hey, what did Joker mean by 'either of you or him?'” Yukino asked suddenly. “Who is 'him?'”

Lisa shook her head. “I'm... not sure. Come to think of it..." She looked over at Eikichi. "Didn't Joker say we were 'lacking one' when he first attacked us at Sumaru Prison?”

Eikichi crossed his arms. “... I had almost forgotten that. Yeah, he said something like... 'you're lacking one but I can take care of him later.'”

“I guess there's someone else he wants vengeance on. Wonder who.”

Maya walked to the railing and stared at the hole. “Joker... He seemed... sad.”

The other three all looked at each other.

“He really didn't,” Lisa said.

“He seems pretty, uh, _empty_ of emotion, actually,” Eikichi added. "When he's not screaming at us, of course."

She shook her head. “No... He's alone... and so... He's like... A scared child, I think. I feel like... I know him from somewhere.”

“Uh... Maya-san?” Yukino asked.

“Ignore me.”

Everyone paused for a moment. Maya tapped her fingers on the railing.

“What should we do now?” Lisa asked. “Hanya got away and took our only lead to Joker with him.”

Maya turned around, her melancholy state forgotten. “Think positive, guys. You have to, at times like this. We're not out of leads yet! Let's chase the rumors! They'll surely lead us _straight_ to Joker.”

“Hey, that's a great idea,” Yukino said. “Hanya did say the emblem curse was started by some students from Kasu.”

“Whoa there!” Eikichi interrupted. “There's no one at Kasugayama High whom the great Michel knows that would start such a rumor. We'd be wasting our time checking it out. If we're gonna search, let's start somewhere else.”

“Well, Kozy is still looking for info..." Lisa said. "Maybe she's found something by now. We can probably find her at Peace Diner in Yumezaki. How about it?”

The door opened and Sheba ran in with another student.

“What happened?" Sheba said. "Everyone's faces suddenly went back to normal! Was the curse broken?”

“Where's Principal Hanya?” The other girl asked. “W-was he here when the clock tower was collapsing? He's not... dead, is he?”

Lisa flicked her eyes over to the giant hole, then back to the girl. “... No, he's fine. You just missed him leaving.”

“I knew it! Our dear principal is invincible! I bet he'll show up again in our hour of greatest need!” The girl turned and walked out, leaving Sheba with the others.

“I actually have no idea if he survived or not,” Lisa told Sheba.

“I hope that doesn't start any weird rumors,” Yukino said. “Come on, let's head for Yumezaki.”

* * *

It did start weird rumors. There were already people saying a number of bizarre things as they left the school. Hanya was even getting the credit for breaking the curse, the son of a bitch.

They returned the clock tower key to Saeko-sensei in the teacher's lounge, then left to look for Miyabi. Sheba had started following them again, too. Apparently, no Hanya to magically order the students around meant she had nothing else to do.

"They should just make Saeko-sensei the principal," Yukino said as they headed down the stairs. "She'd be way better than Hannya ever was."

"I doubt they'd let her be in charge, given that she's had two of her students drop out just this year," Sheba replied. "It doesn't paint such a great picture of her."

"Hey, Saeko-sensei is a great teacher! If students dropped out of her class, that's on them. I can't imagine why anyone would drop out when they've got her, though... She _really_ helped me turn my life around."

In the front, they found Kashihara standing over the broken pieces of the clock, talking on his phone. In the distance, they could see Noriko running off, presumably in pursuit of Anna.

“-late coming home,” Kashihara was saying. “Very late, actually.” He paused for the person on the other end to speak. “No, don't worry about making anything for me. I'll grab something while I'm out.”

“Don't see any sign of Hanya,” Lisa muttered. “I guess he really did survive.”

“Wonder if we'll see him again,” Eikichi said.

“I hope not...”

“... We're done here. Let's get going.”

“Right! To find Kozy it is!"

They walked off to the front gate, waving to Kashihara as they left. Lisa had to wonder as they left what it was that seemed to be bothering him so much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was no way to make the Hanya battle interesting, sorry.
> 
>  **Party Personas (4/9)**  
> 
> Eros (Rank 5), Rhadamanthus (Rank 5), Maia (Rank 3), Vesta (Rank 3)


	5. Act 1: Wild Dance

**August 6 th, 1999 – The Velvet Room, Yumezaki Entrance**

 

“You're Pixie, too? Yaaay!” The newly-summoned Persona giggled. “Nice to meet you!”

It folded into the card, which shrunk and settled itself in Lisa's hand. That and Poltergeist gave the group six Personas in all, four of which could each only be used by one person. Three more and they'd fill their max carrying capacity, as Igor had informed her.

She didn't get why they had to have a limit on how many they could have but decided to trust the guy who clearly knew more.

“Okay, so I think we're done here.” She turned back to the party.

Maya was engaged in what looked to be an absolutely  _riveting_  conversation with Nameless about dreams while Eikichi watched him play the piano. Yukino was just standing behind her, watching her summon the Personas. Sheba was still standing by the door, taking in the environment.

“Guys,” Lisa said. Everyone looked up at her. “Let's go. We're burning what little daylight we have left.”

Sure enough, when they got outside, the sun was fairly low in the sky. The air was cooler than it had been in the afternoon but still fairly warm given the time of year.

“That place was weird,” Sheba said.

“You get used to it,” Yukino replied. “Come on, we have another stop to make.”

* * *

“Okay, so five each of the Antidote, Tranquilizer, Energy Drink, and Ohnusa... Do we really need all that?” Lisa asked, checking the basket.

“Demons have some nasty tricks up their sleeve,” Yukino said. “A lot of these conditions  _can_  be cured with spells but there's no guarantee you'll have a Persona that knows the right one.”

“Right... Then, ten Medicines and one more Revival Bead in addition to the one we got from that Nightmare.”

“Yep.”

“This will be enough?”

“It's what we can afford without totally bankrupting ourselves.”

“That's not what I asked.”

Yukino put a hand on her shoulder. “Ideally, you want to be carrying as many of those things as you can physically fit into your bag. However, we don't have the money for that.”

“Alright... So is this everything we need?”

“It should be good for now.”

As Lisa checked out, she could see Eikichi inspecting the health foods. Maya seemed distracted by that weird song playing over the loudspeaker and Sheba was checking out the makeup.

She had to wonder why Sheba was still following her around. There was nothing to be gained from recklessly following someone who had a homicidal genie after them. The reporters had the excuse of looking for a good story but Sheba had no reason to be there.

What was she hoping to accomplish? Didn't she have her own life to go back to? Why would she risk her life like this in the most idiotic move ever? It made absolutely no sense.

“Are you done?” Yukino asked.

“Yeah...” Lisa grabbed the items and shoved them in her bag. “Let's go find Kozy.”

* * *

**August 6 th, 1999 – Peace Diner, Yumezaki**

 

“That's weird,” Lisa said. “Kozy's not here. I thought she'd be munching on a Big Peace Burger...” Maybe she was still out investigating?

“Well, since we're here anyway, why don't we get some dinner?” Maya suggested. “Since it's around that time and all.”

They were halfway through eating a very silent and awkward meal when the door opened and in stepped a girl in a Sevens uniform. She was wearing a first-year ribbon and had a number of colorful feathers braided into her bright blue hair.

“Huh?” she said, walking over to them. “Hey, is that you, Lisa-san, Sheba-san? Fancy meeting you here!”

Lisa blinked and swallowed her mouthful of burger. “Huh...? Oh yeah, you're on Kozy's newspaper staff... um...”

“Chikarin,” Sheba supplied.

She nodded. “Ooh, didn't remember me, huh? Yep, that's me! Ueda Chika but everyone calls me Chikarin.”

“Perfect timing!” Lisa set her burger down. “Have you seen Kozy?”

Chika snapped her fingers. “Ah, thanks for reminding me! I was looking into the emblem curse with Kozy-sempai. She found out the Kasu guys who spread the rumor about the disease were at Zodiac, so she went to infiltrate the club and talk to them. She left me to investigate other stuff while she did that but I haven't heard back from her in a while.”

Eikichi scoffed. “Pft, 'infiltrate?' I didn't know Fatty had it in her to pull off a stealth mission.”

Lisa smacked his arm. “Hey! Pay attention, Undie Boss! Sounds like it  _was_  Kasu students who spread the rumor about that disease!”

He shook his head, looking irritated. “There's no way my guys would stoop to that! I didn't teach 'em to be cowards! Fatty must have gotten some bad info.”

She slammed a fist on the table. “But even Hanya said Kasu did it! That's two witnesses now! Are you still gonna try and play dumb!?”

“E-even if it  _was_  true, I bet it was just out of jealousy. If I go and yell at 'em, those rumors are gonna-”

Yukino interrupted. “Alright, that's enough. We get the point. Let's just go to Zodiac and learn the truth for ourselves. And if Kasu students started the rumor, we'll have Eikichi set them straight, okay?”

“Zodiac's that club not far from here, right?” Maya asked. “Shall we head there when we're done eating?”

* * *

**August 6 th, 1999 – Club Zodiac, Yumezaki**

 

The flashing lights and music were distracting. This wasn't Lisa's first visit to Club Zodiac but she wasn't here to dance or flirt with boys. She was here on a  _mission_.

Practically the first thing she saw when they walked in was Noriko standing near one side of the room. Sitting on the couch in front of her and smoking was a girl in a blue shirt with messy hair. Though she hadn't been in school for a while, Lisa immediately recognized her as Yoshizaka Anna. The rumors about how she'd been spending her time since dropping out were true, it'd seem.

Noriko seemed to be trying to persuade Anna to quit her unhealthy habits and go back to school. She never had given up on the idea that Anna could recover from her injury, after all. Maybe not a complete pipe dream but still very unlikely.

Anna just kept silent and took another drag off her cigarette.

“Onee-sama, no!" Noriko protested. "You can't keep that up or you'll ruin your health even worse! Then you'll never run again...”

Anna still said nothing, staring her down.

She sighed, looking ready to cry. “Onee-sama... Am I that much of an annoyance to you? You're really not gonna...” She looked back up, angry tears in the corner of her eyes. “... You idiot!” She pushed past the group and stormed out of the club. Sheba tried to reach out a hand out to her but was ignored.

Yukino watched as she left, then turned and approached Anna. “Don't do this. Trying to be something you're not isn't cool.”

Anna looked her up and down. “... Who're you?” Her tone of voice was dull and bored-sounding. Monotone but not quite in the same unnerving way as Joker's voice.

“Me? I'm Mayuzumi Yukino. Just... an apprentice photographer.”

“... And  _why_  are you getting in my business? Take a hike, will you?”

“You should take the advice people give you. You're the one who'll regret it if you don't.”

Anna stood up. “Wow, that's stupid...” She turned and started to leave. "I've got better things to do than listen to you."

“I'm surprised you're not getting angry...” Yukino said.

Anna looked at her. “... It wouldn't change anything. I hate annoyances like this.” She then walked out, leaving the group alone.

Before anyone else could say anything, a voice popped up from behind them.

“Whoa, whoa! What's with the preaching in our place? You think you're hot shit or something?”

They all looked up and realized the clubgoers, most of whom were in Kasu uniforms, were moving to surround them.

“You chicks are Sevens students, right?” another one said. “Better head straight home after school or your scaaary principal's gonna get ya!”

"I really doubt that," Sheba said even as she was slowly moving behind Lisa.

Eikichi pushed past the others to stand in front, a plastic grin barely concealing his anger. “That's enough, everyone! I think we all need to be shinier, happier people here. You don't want to make me mad, do you?”

The students all looked surprised.

“M-M-Michel-san!?” one of them stammered, before shaking his head. “Wh-who gives a damn about you anymore? No one'll listen to you. You're not our Boss no more!”

Eikichi dropped the false pleasantries. “What...? You want to repeat that, you little punk?”

“We got a new Leader! And he's way, WAY stronger than any Boss! All your cronies have switched sides at Kasu for our new Leader, Sugimoto-san!”

"Everyone except that Hamasaki dumbass," another said.

"Why do they think he's stronger, though...? Have the two ever actually fought?" Sheba muttered.

Eikichi looked surprised. “S-Sugimoto? You mean Sugimoto  _Hiroki_!?  _He's_  the Leader at Kasu...?” He shook himself and straightened back up. “Quit joking around!”

He summoned Rhadamanthus, though he didn't do anything so it must have simply been a scare tactic. Two of the students ran for it, while the one who'd been arguing collapsed on the floor, shouting in fear.

“H-H-Help me...!”

Eikichi grabbed the guy's collar and pulled him to his feet. “What was that about the new Leader being stronger than any Boss!? Think you can say that again!?”

“I-It's the rumor going around! I just heard everyone say that 'Kasu's Leader is stronger than the Boss!'”

“Rumor...?” Sheba paused. “Wait... Doesn't that mean...?”

“So there's a new head honcho right under the old one's nose?” Maya asked. “Doesn't that seem a little sudden? Sounds like the result of another rumor... Maybe that Sugimoto's in league with Joker, too.”

“It's sure possible,” Yukino added. “There's no way he could take over an entire school that quick without something up his sleeve.”

Eikichi dropped the guy and backed up.

“By the way,” Maya continued. “I'm sure you know the rumor about Sevens' emblem being cursed. From what I understand, that rumor started at Kasu. Do you know anything about it?”

The guy looked away, clearly not wanting to answer, but relented under Eikichi's glare. “W-We spread that rumor because the Leader told us to! He said he'd spread mud on Sevens' reputation cause he hated 'em...”

“Kehhei!” Lisa cracked her knuckles. “What's up with that!? Why would this guy have such a grudge against our school!?”

“We'll just have to ask him in person!” Eikichi said. “Hey! Where's Sugimoto now?”

“H-H-He's here, at the secret lounge further in...”

“A secret lounge!? I'll smack the smile right off that cocky bastard's face!”

“Wait, no!” Sheba tried to interrupt. "That's not a good-"

“Hold your horses, there, Undie Boss!” Lisa interrupted. She turned back to the Kasu student. “Hey, was there a girl called Kozy here? She was investigating the emblem curse rumor, too.”

“I don't know no Kozy. Though there was this girl, said her name was Hanakouji Miyabi, who went to see our Leader...”

“What!?” Eikichi shouted. “Did you just say Hanakouji Miyabi? Hanakouji-san went to see Sugimoto?” He turned and looked at the back entrance. “I... I gotta go!”

“Wait, Eikichi-kun!” Maya said. “It's too dangerous to go alone!”

“Mishina-san, you don't understand-” Sheba started but he was already gone. She turned to Lisa. "I knew we should have told him who Kozy is!"

Lisa sighed. “She asked us not to. How was I supposed to know this would happen? ... Well, Undie Boss aside, we can't turn our backs on Kozy. We should go after him.”

“He could be in big trouble... Cause if the rumor is that the Leader is stronger than the Boss, then he probably won't be able to win regardless of what he does.”

"...  _Shit_ , you're probably right. C'mon, guys, we gotta launch a rescue  _now_."

One of the club employees helpfully informed them as they left that the second floor was said to be a maze. Lisa hoped that rumor wasn't particularly widespread yet. The last thing she needed was to get stuck in a maze.

* * *

The second floor did indeed prove to not be easily navigable. On the other hand, they found several useful items, mostly cards to be used in summoning Personas. After some difficulty and a lot of zombies – it seemed most of the demons in the club were some manner of zombie and therefore couldn't be negotiated with – they located... a staff lounge. With no Eikichi.

There were two people wearing bizarre masks, though. There was also Ken.

“What are you doing here?” Lisa asked.

“Everyone was saying this weird stuff about there being a new Leader or whatever, so I came to check it out,” he said. “Michel-san said I'm in charge while he chases Joker, so I came to check out the rumors. It would be bad if someone else took over the school while I'm in charge. I got lost, though.”

“We're pretty lost, too,” Sheba replied. “Hey, uh, what's with them?” She pointed to the masked pair.

“Apparently, they got some kind of mysterious invite for a 'gathering' or something. They said they have to come or they'll apparently be turned into shadowmen. The masks are part of the deal, too.”

“If they're being threatened with being turned into shadowmen, then Joker's  _gotta_  be behind this...” Lisa said. “I knew it.”

“Where's Michel-san? Shouldn't he be with you?”

Yukino shrugged. “We're looking for him now. He ran off ahead of us. Are you a friend of his?”

“He was at Sumaru Prison when... that all happened. … Hamasaki Ken, right?” Sheba said. He nodded. “Yeah, he stayed behind while we all went to Sevens.”

"Michel-san needed someone to hold down the fort while he was with you guys," he said.

“Well, Ken-kun,” Maya said. “If you can't find your way around on your own, why don't you stick with us?”

“Uh... sure, I guess?” he said, scratching his head. “If we're all looking for Michel-san and this Leader, I guess that makes sense.”

* * *

“Hey, Lisa?” Yukino said. “You're pretty good with your fists.”

Lisa shrugged. “Yeah but... Aren't we a little busy?” She glanced at the demon. This seemed like a bad time to be discussing her skills.

“Nope. Come on over here.”

She looked at the others in confusion, then walked over. “What are you-”

“Hey, demon!" Yukino held her own hands up in fists. "I'm not that great at talking with my mouth but I got another way of communicating! Come on, Lisa!”

Sheba covered her eyes and Maya and Ken stared incredulously as the two girls went to town on the demon. Lisa had beaten up several demons with her fists by this point but doing it for the sake of getting the demon to help them was something else entirely. She had to admit, though, that it was pretty good stress relief.

“Hey, you're pretty interesting!” the demon declared. “Can I ask a question?”

“I can't believe that worked,” Maya muttered.

* * *

“What the hell is this?” Lisa asked, staring at the bizarre spring that she was sure was not built into the club's architecture. Then again, she doubted they had actually built a maze in, either.

Yukino grimaced. “This... is Trish.”

“She's cute,” Sheba said.

The little blue-haired fairy wearing what looked like a sexy nurse costume waved. “Is this your first time here? I'm Trish. This is my fountain of healing. I'll treat your wounds!”

“Nice,” Maya said, grinning.

“Not for free, of course. This world  _runs_  on give-and-take! Give me money and  _then_  I'll heal you!”

“Don't bother,” Yukino said. “Her prices are astronomical. It's cheaper to buy medicine in bulk.”

“Hmph!” Trish crossed her arms. “Well, if you're not gonna pay, you don't get to stay! Now scram!”

Everyone walked back out into the club. Yukino was pinching the bridge of her nose. There was a silent agreement to just go back to what they were doing.

* * *

 "Manzai act, huh?” Lisa asked, staring at the cards they'd been given by the demon.

“What are you talking about?” Maya replied, confused. “We were just talking.”

“Yes,” Yukino said. “That's pretty much what we were doing.”

“But Yukki-”

Yukino put a hand on Maya's shoulder and shook her head. “Just go with it.”

These demon contacts were getting really,  _really_  weird.

* * *

They finally managed to locate the staircase leading to the third floor, after exploring the second floor in its entirety.

“Do you feel that?” Yukino asked as they reached the top of the stairs. “Eikichi's up ahead. I think he's in trouble.”

They followed the resonance to a door, guarded by a dark-skinned bald man.

“Whoa, hold it there!” the bouncer said. “If you wanna hang with the in-crowd, you better come back with a mask.”

Everyone looked at each other, unsure of what to do. They retreated further back for emergency discussion.

“Maybe we can rush him?” Ken suggested.

Yukino shook her head. “He's a bouncer. They're  _supposed_  to be able to handle unruly clubgoers.”

"Yeah but I doubt he's been trained to handle  _superpowered_  unruly clubgoers," Lisa said.

“He said something about needing a mask,” Maya said. “Probably those same ones the people were wearing in the room where we ran into Ken-kun. Maybe if we look around, we can find some for us to put on.”

Wandering around led them to quickly locate a staff room, with a few of the masked people inside.

“I take it this is your first meeting?” one of the masked people asked. “Rumor is, that's true for everyone here. You got a card from the Empress, right? If you want into the secret lounge, you need a mask.”

“We, uh... don't have them?” Sheba said.

“I forgot mine, too,” one of the others said. He looked to be wearing a Karukozaka High uniform. Lisa would know those tacky striped pants anywhere.

“But... you're wearing a mask?” Yukino asked.

“Yeah, they had some spares in that box over there.” He pointed to an empty cardboard box in the corner.

“Cool,” Ken said. “We'll just grab some for ourselves then.”

He grabbed five masks out of the box and passed them out. It was an odd-looking thing, oval-shaped with no obvious eyeholes and a blue gem embedded in the top. It was entirely identical to the masks worn by all the others.

Looking at it filled her with inexplicable rage.

“Well,” Maya said. “Looks like we have our ticket in!”

They returned to the secret lounge, with everyone wearing one of the strange masks. The bouncer seemed more friendly now that they had their 'identification', as one could say.

“Welcome to the wild dance, sisters!” he said, stepping aside to let them reach the door. “The party's still going inside.”

“Right...” Lisa adjusted the mask. Something about wearing one made her profoundly uncomfortable. “Let's go rescue the Undie Boss.”

She pushed open the door and stepped into the lounge.


	6. Act 1: The Leader

Once they were inside, Lisa quickly removed her mask and the others followed suit.

The lounge seemed nice, with a bar and everything. That must have been part of the whole 'secret' thing. Lisa had to wonder if it had existed before or after the rumor had spread. She assumed it was created via rumor the same way the maze dungeon had been.

Scattered around the inside were several more masked people, a nasty-looking redheaded guy, Miyabi, and Eikichi. The redhead seemed to be holding Miyabi hostage while Eikichi was on the ground, getting the shit kicked out of him by several Kasu students. Miyabi had her face covered with her hands, apparently unable to bring herself to watch.

“Oh man!” the redhead said, holding up a hand for the students to stop. It must have been Sugimoto. He seemed skeezy and Lisa hated him on sight. “Check it out! The  _Boss_! What are you holding your stomach for? Need to take a shit? Want me to drop your drawers for you?”

Everyone in the room laughed. Eikichi looked up at him, clearly pissed off but still holding his stomach. How long had he been getting beaten up? 

“Easy there!” Sugimoto said, holding up a knife. “You know what's gonna happen to this chick if you bring out your shinigami, right...?”

He waved his hand again and the students resumed beating on Eikichi, mocking him the whole time.

“Heh heh!” one said. “You ain't shit without that shinigami of yours!”

“What's with your 'I won't allow any bullying of the weak' crap?” another added. “You only said that cause  _you're_  weak!”

“That 'gathering' stuff seemed like a pain in the ass but I'm glad I came if it meant I get to see something  _this_ awesome!” said one of the ones standing off to the side.

“Sheesh, you're a mess,” Sugimoto said as he motioned again for them to stop. “Is Fatty here really that important to ya?”

“Whatever...” Eikichi said, rubbing his face. “She was only tagging along. But if anything happens to Hanakouji-san, you punks are in for a world of pain!”

Miyabi lowered her hands from her face. Why did she look so sad? Lisa had to wonder.

“Huh?” Sugimoto seemed confused. “What're you talking about? Hanakouji's-”

“No!” Miyabi cried, covering her ears. “Don't tell him! Please! Don't say it!”

Sugimoto looked back and forth between Eikichi and Miyabi, then started laughing.

“You didn't know?” he said as if this was the most hilarious thing in the world. “This  _hambeast_  here  _is_  Hanakouji Miyabi!”

"I wonder how different she must have looked before..." Sheba muttered from behind her.

Eikichi looked startled by the revelation. “R-really?” he said. “Are you... really Hanakouji-san? Why... Why did you never say anything!? I...”

Miyabi rubbed her eyes. “I'm sorry... I was too embarrassed. I... I didn't want you to know, Eikichi-kun!”

“Were you guys going out or somethin'?” Sugimoto drawled. “You and Fatty here would be a perfect match!” He started laughing again. He seemed to find the idea that someone could like Miyabi to be funny. Lisa wanted to run over there and beat the shit out of him.

“You bastard...” Eikichi seemed even angrier now. Righteous fury and Lisa couldn't say she didn't understand it. “Say what you want about me! I don't care! But anyone who laughs at her is a dead man!”

“Looks like you don't really get what kinda position you're in... Watch closely!” Sugimoto swiped at Miyabi with the knife. She screamed and clutched at her cheek.

It was at this point that Sheba, Maya, and Yukino had to begin physically restraining Lisa.

“Ngh!” Eikichi growled. “Sugimotoooo!”

Sugimoto grabbed Miyabi's wrist, a reminder to Eikichi not to fight back no matter what.

“Let me go!” Lisa said to the others. “I'm gonna drop so many rocks on his ass! And break his nose!”

“Wait!” Yukino said. “We storm in there, we hurt Eikichi's pride! I  _know_  it's tough to watch... But this is his moment!”

“You want me to just  _sit back_!? Fanna! No way! Kozy's in danger too! I'm gonna go save them! Both of them!”

“Michel-san wouldn't  _want_  us to step in!” Ken said. “I'm sure he's got an idea of what to do. We should wait and let him handle this.”

Lisa growled at him but didn't move from her spot. “Fine. Just a little longer but, if anything happens, I'm holding you  _all_  accountable!”

“Alright, Sugimoto,” Eikichi said, kneeling on the floor. “You got me. Do your worst. Just let her go.”

“Looks like you're finally getting the picture...” Sugimoto laughed. “Fine! I ain't gonna go soft and take only an arm here... To get back for what you put me through, I'll have to take both arms and legs!”

Yukino had to grab Lisa again. She was ready to smash that guy's face into a bloody pulp.

“... Are you still bitching about me pantsing you in middle school?” Eikichi asked, seemingly surprised that someone would be holding a grudge over such a thing for so long.

“O-of course I am! It's your fault that...” Sugimoto sounded wheezy. “My girl dumped me for that!”

Eikichi shook his head. “That wasn't it. She got fed up with the way you'd pick on anyone weaker than you.”

“Th-that's a lie!” He waved his knife around. “You're lying! It was your fault! Everything is!”

The students scattered so Sugimoto himself could approach and start swiping at Eikichi. It took all four of her companions to stop Lisa from summoning Eros and going Magna on his ass.

After three or four swipes, Sugimoto stepped back, panting. “That's right, dammit! The Leader is stronger than the Boss, you hear!?” He started glowing as if about to summon a Persona. He was apparently getting serious.

Lisa clenched her fists and prepared to summon Eros.

Eikichi looked at him. “In that case...” He grinned and stood up despite the blood on his face. “I quit being the Boss!”

Sugimoto stopped summoning, apparently shocked by this sudden move. “... Uh?”

Eikichi walked right up and decked him in the face, knocking him to the floor. All the masked people looked startled by the sudden turn in events and started to quietly leave. There was, it seemed, no interest in this now that the magical protections had been worked around.

“The Leader might be stronger than the Boss...” Eikichi said. “But there's no way Sugimoto Hiroki is stronger than Mishina Eikichi! After that beating you put me through, I'm calling it even between us.”

He cracked his knuckles. Lisa no longer felt a need to involve herself.

* * *

“Bluhhh...” Sugimoto's face was in an awful state and Lisa didn't pity him even the slightest bit. “I-I'm zorry... J-Just dun yank muh pansssss!”

Eikichi shook his head. “I've got no right to act all superior about what Sugimoto did. There's no difference between that and what I've done. Not really.”

“Michel-san?” Ken asked.

“I acted like a big guy, ordering all you guys not to pick on the weak... But that was all just a front. Really, it was just an excuse to beat people up with my Persona... And that ain't how a man should act!”

“Aiyah?” Lisa asked, walking up and bumping against his side. “What happened to the usual, self-centered, heedless goon we all know?” She coughed. “Uh, if nothing else, that stuff you said a second ago was... Uh... It was pretty cool.”

Why did she find herself caring so much about a guy she'd known for less than twenty-four hours?

“Mmhm!” Maya nodded. “Even without your Persona, you  _were_  pretty cool back there, Eikichi-kun!”

“Giving up your title to circumvent the rumor was clever,” Sheba said. “I spent the whole trip up here trying to figure out how to work past that and you just solved it on your own. I never even considered that possibility.”

“Sorry for being so mopey...” Eikichi said. “Anyway, I'm done being the Boss, starting now.” He turned to Miyabi. “Hanakouji-san? Are you... well, I guess you're not okay, huh...”

Miyabi wrung her hands. “I'm sorry, Eikichi-kun! I'm... I'm so sorry to have caused you all this trouble!”

He stepped closer. “Don't worry about it. The cut on your face is it-”

Miyabi covered his face with one hand, holding the other to tell him to not get any closer than that. “No! Don't look, Eikichi-kun... I'm sorry!”

She turned and ran to the door.

“Kozy!” Sheba shouted.

“Hanakouji-san!?”

Everyone paused to watch her run out but nobody seemed to want to go after her. She clearly desired to be alone after all. There'd be time to contact her later.

When she was well and truly gone, Yukino turned back to Sugimoto. “Alright, time to spill it all," she said. "If you  _don't_ , you're gonna find there's  _way_  worse than having your pants pulled down.” She cracked her knuckles as she moved closer. Ken and Lisa followed suit.

Sugimoto made a squeaking noise. “I-I'll talk, I'll talk! What do you want to know!?”

“Why'd you order your stooges to spread a rumor that the Sevens emblem was cursed?”

“Th-the student council president asked me to! He said he'd make me Leader with Master Joker's powers if I ruined Sevens' reputation!”

Eikichi harrumphed. “That Inoe... I turned him down, so he went with the next name on his list!”

“The people here said something about a 'gathering' going on here today,” Maya said. “What did they mean by that?”

“There's an organization that you have to join once Master Joker grants your wish. I heard the gathering this evening was an initiation ceremony for it. Wh-which reminds me... I also heard that one of their executives, Empress Scorpio, was gonna be at the gathering.” He spread his arms pleadingly. “This was gonna be my first time going, so that's really all I know! C'mon, just let me go...”

“Looks like you're telling the truth...” Eikichi said. “Alright, you're off the hook. But you better not go near Joker ever again, got it!?”

Sugimoto nodded, then fled.

“Well, looks like we have our culprit,” Lisa said. “Next stop: the Kasu student council president! I'm gonna beat the stuffing out of that guy!”

“Right... We can't do that today considering how late it is, so how about we all meet at Kasu tomorrow?” Maya asked. “In the meantime, let's break for the night. I'll give you my cell number, so feel free to call if you need anything. I can give you my address, too, but it might not be me that answers the door. Eikichi-kun, come over here and I'll handle those wounds.”

“Right...” Lisa turned towards the door. “See you all outside Kasu tomorrow, then.”

As she walked out, Sheba was right behind her.

* * *

**August 6 th, 1999 – The Velvet Room, Yumezaki Entrance**

 

Lisa watched as Airgetlam folded into its card form and settled in her hand. Three more Personas, giving them the maximum amount that Igor would allow them to carry at once.

“That really is so weird...” Sheba said from behind her. "And why can  _all_  of you use the ones you summon here?"

Lisa turned around. “... Why haven't you gone home yet?”

“And just  _leave_  you?” Sheba looked confused by the very idea. “There's a guy out to  _murder_  you!”

“Yeah, so isn't following me around just endangering yourself?”

“I..." She clearly hadn't considered that. "Maybe so but... you're my friend, Lisa. I can't just walk off while you're in this kind of danger. Even if I'm putting myself in harm's way... I have to be there for you. No matter what.”

Lisa stiffened. “But...”

Sheba tilted her head. “But... what?”

“N-Nothing. Never mind. I should get home.”

She pushed the door open and stepped out into the warm summer night.

“I'll go with you,” Sheba said. “I don't want you to be alone when Joker might come after you.”

“He said he's going to come for me 'after I remember.' I haven't remembered, so I doubt we're gonna see him tonight.” She turned and started walking towards the train station. It wasn't that late, according to her watch, so she could still get a train to Rengedai.

“But what does he want you to remember...?” Sheba's voice was low, a mutter. She was clearly talking to herself and yet Lisa couldn't stop herself from responding.

“Well  _gee_ , Sheba,” she said in a voice dripping with sarcasm, “I don't  _know_. If I  _knew_  then that would mean that I  _remember_ , wouldn't it?”

“Lisa... Did I... do something to upset you?” When she turned around, the look on Sheba's face was like that of a kicked puppy.

She ran her hands over her face. Truthfully, it was the lack of things that would upset her that was causing her to act like this. Sheba's behavior ran counter to everything she thought about her friends. “No... No, you haven't done anything. I'm just... It's been a long day.”

Sheba reached out and grabbed her wrist. “You know I'm always here for you, right? You're one of my best friends. Or... my best friend? Did I have... another best friend?”

“Do you mean Mee-ho?” She tried not to think about the implications of Sheba referring to her as a best friend or the fact that she was putting herself in harm's way for Lisa's sake.

Sheba shook her head. “I can't... I mean I don't... It's like... I know there's something there. Right at the edge of my memory but when I try to grab it, it's... gone.”

This was painful to watch. The idea that Mee-ho had just been  _forgotten_  because of what Joker had done to her was terrifying. “You know... I think I have a photo somewhere in my bedroom. Joker... he can't have caused her to disappear from the photo. If I show you that, you  _have_  to remember her.” She shifted her hand so it was now her grabbing Sheba's wrist, pulling her towards the train station.

* * *

**August 6 th, 1999 – Silverman Residence, Rengedai**

 

“Here,” she said, digging around in a box in her bedroom. “It's in here somewhere. Just hold on. I'm sure you'll remember her just as soon as you see the picture.”

Sheba was sitting on the floor behind her, legs pulled up to her chin. “Hey, why can you remember the shadowmen?”

“Why can I...?” She hadn't considered that. “I guess maybe... my Persona? It might explain why I resisted Hanya's control, too.”

“So it just... protects you from... mind stuff.”

“I... guess? I don't know if the others were protected from Hanya by their Personas since they have nothing to do with Sevens anyway. But they  _can_  see and remember the shadowmen.”

“So you're safe from all that stuff... but I'm vulnerable. And I can't fight. And... Oh, I'm so stupid, thinking  _I_  can protect _you_.”

Lisa paused and turned around. “I don't... need you to protect me.”

“Yeah. Clearly. I just want to be of some help but... what can I  _do_  in this situation? If I can't even defend myself, defending you is pointless. Especially when you seem to be doing fine on your own... even if only because Joker himself is waiting for you to remember this 'crime' you've committed. Besides, you've got Mishina-san and Amano-san and Mayuzumi-san helping you too and they all have the same powers...”

“You know, I think they prefer just being called Maya-san and Yukino-san. And Eikichi... call him Michel or whatever, I guess. He likes that.”

“You don't.”

“I'll call him  _Michel_  when he agrees to call me  _Lisa_.” She went back to digging through the box. “There it is! Sheba, come over here.”

Sheba crawled over to kneel beside her and stared at the photo in her hand. It was one dating back to April, celebrating the start of their second year. Looking at it now, Lisa could see plainly how plastic her own smile in it was.

“That's... That's Mee-ho,” Sheba said as if she were slowly realizing something, pointing to the girl with the dyed hair. “That's her.”

“That's her.”

Sheba looked down, slowly tugging the photograph from her hands. “Can I... take this? Just for a while. Until we find Joker and make him turn Mee-ho back to normal. It's just... maybe if I have a picture of her, remembering her all the time will be easier and I can't remember if I have any pictures at home or if I'd remember to look for them.”

“Yeah... Yeah, sure.” She put the lid back on the box and stood up to put it back on the shelf. “Keep it as long as you need.”

Sheba squinted at the picture again. “Ha, we're still wearing our emblems... That was... I think that was before I even heard about the Joker Game, let alone the emblem curse. Which... Actually, that reminds me cause I was wondering earlier... do you think the curse is broken for good and everyone can put their emblems back on or will we have to, like, get a new school emblem? Or would  _any_  Sevens emblem be cursed and we just can't have one anymore?”

She paused. That hadn't occurred to her.  _Was_ the curse broken for good? “I don't like any of the possible ways we could find the answer to that question, in case it turns out it  _isn't_  broken for good.”

“Should we maybe... spread the rumor that the curse on Sevens emblem has been broken? Just in case?”

“That might be a good idea. The detectives at Kuzunoha might be able to help with that. They'll charge for it, I think, but we picked up a lot of money from demons.”

“Kuzunoha... Those are the guys who spread the rumor about the ramen shop selling weapons, right? In Kameya Alley? I can go get them to spread the rumor while you're at Kasu tomorrow. I won't exactly be much help by following you around.”

“Yeah, that sounds good. Actually, we're gonna want to spread rumors to our advantage anyway but we can't go back and forth when we're busy chasing Joker... If you could talk to all the rumormongers and spread those rumors for us...”

Sheba stood up. “Then I'll be able to help in an area that you  _need_  help in! I can even pick up supplies and stuff for you all to make sure you're properly equipped without having to buy stuff yourself!”

“Yeah! If you could do that and just meet up with us every once in a while to give us our new supplies, then we're free to pursue Joker.”

Sheba threw her arms around Lisa. Lisa just stood there and wondered if maybe she'd been wrong about some things concerning her friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Party Personas (9/9)**
> 
> Eros, Rhadamanthus, Vesta, Maia, Pixie, Poltergeist, Harpy, Phaleg, Airgetlam


	7. Act 1: Kasu

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very short chapter today. The next two will be significantly longer, I promise.

**August 7 th, 1999 – Kasugayama High School, Hirasaka**

 

The party congregated at the front gate of Kasugayama. Lisa and Sheba were the last to arrive, having made a stop by Satomi Tadashi to restock on medicines in case they found themselves in battle again.

“I see we all made it,” Maya said. "I'm glad to see you're all okay. I'll admit I was nervous letting you go off on your own like that under the current circumstances."

"Yeah, we're fine," Eikichi said. "Nothin' happened after we went home last night. At least not for me. What about you, Ginko?"

She shook her head. “Uneventful."

"So are we ready to get some answers out of Inoe, then?"

"Yeah... Sheba here is gonna take care of some stuff for us while we do that.”

“Really? What kind of stuff?” Yukino asked.

“Rumor-spreading!” Sheba answered. “I'm gonna gather up all the rumors I can find that may be useful for you guys and then have that detective agency spread them! I'll also see if I can get some even better equipment for you all. Lisa's already given me the money for it. I'm also gonna spread a counter-rumor about the emblem curse to make sure it's broken for good.”

“That's..." Eikichi started. "Alright, I guess that's actually pretty useful for us.”

“More useful than just following you guys around like I was before. This way you don't have to worry about doing all that while you chase Joker.”

Ken shoved his hands in his pockets. “Hey, what am I gonna do?” he asked. “Holding down the fort isn't any use when you're right here.”

“You can help me if you want, Hamasaki-san," she suggested. "The rumormongers are scattered all over Sumaru, after all. It'll be faster if I have help, probably.”

“Yeah, sure, alright.” He turned to Eikichi. “... _Is_ that alright?”

Eikichi shrugged. “I mean... We can handle Inoe ourselves. The guy's pretty shrimpy.”

“Great!" Sheba said, clapping her hands together. "The two of us should probably go then.”

As the two of them ran off towards Kameya Alley, the rest of the group all nodded at each other and walked into the building. There were students running all over inside. Most were carrying supplies or shouting at others. Some were hanging decorations on the walls. 

“Wow, it's jumping in here,” Maya said. “Are they getting ready for the school festival or something? Seems like everyone's excited.”

Eikichi nodded, clenching his fists. “Yeah... Inoe's in charge of it all. And here I thought he was just putting in extra effort for the school." He cracked his knuckles. "That bastard... I'll beat a confession out of that prick! Let's go!”

"Wait." Yukino held out a hand for him to slow down. “Let's ask around for info while we're at it. See if anyone knows anything of worth.”

Maya nodded. "Yukki's right. Joker seems to have a pretty good foothold here in Kasu, so the students might know something."

He paused. "Yeah... you're probably right. Let's check it out."

* * *

Inoe wasn't in the area between the main building and the gym. There were a couple of other students, though. They were carrying supplies in and out of the gym while others were setting up a table.

“Sorry, you can't go in there,” said the student who seemed to be acting as supervisor. “We're setting up for the masquerade dance. Nobody's supposed to see it until tomorrow.”

“Yeah, yeah. Is Inoe in there?” Eikichi asked. "We, uh, need to find him. Emergency, you know?"

The student shook his head. “No... He's probably somewhere in the classroom building, sorry.”

“Well, it was worth a shot,” Lisa said.

As Eikichi opened the door for the others to go back into the building, Maya turned to him.

“A masquerade dance?” she asked. “Isn't that a little... strange, given that all those people at the club yesterday? Masks seem to be a recurring thing here...”

He sighed as he stepped inside and let the door swing shut. “It seemed like a cool idea when it was first brought up. A good way to improve our reputation if we could impress the guys from other schools... Now I'm not so sure... If Inoe's in with Joker, it raises a lot more questions about... well, everything.”

“Mm. It's something to keep in mind.”

* * *

There were quite a few shadowmen scattered around the school. More in one place than Lisa had seen anywhere else. Interrogating them for info wasn't much use but their presence alone said some things about the situation at Kasu. Very bad things, mostly.

“I'll never forget it...” one of the shadowmen muttered. “An ordinary meeting... Nothing out of the ordinary... Then there was someone with a blue skull...”

“A blue skull?” Lisa crossed her arms, thinking. This was the most useful thing they'd learned yet. “... Hey, Eikichi, what color was that skull thing Joker carried?”

“Um...” Eikichi frowned. “I don't think it was blue... I think it would be better to say it wasn't colored at all.”

“Yeah, that's what I thought. I remember him using it on Mee-ho and the others and... I didn't think it had a color.”

“Is there maybe more than one?” Maya suggested. “Though that itself would suggest that there are probably multiple people stealing people's dreams.”

“Well, we already know Joker has people working for him,” Yukino said. “That Empress Scorpio that Sugimoto mentioned for one. And she was said to be 'one' of their executives, which would imply the existence of others.”

“We'll just take them all down,” Eikichi said. "If they're working with Joker, they can't be any good."

Maya looked wistful. "I don't know... Truthfully, I'm not convinced that he's evil..."

"Maya-san...?" Lisa started.

"I don't..." She shook her head. "Let's keep going. We've still gotta find Inoe."

* * *

They stopped outside a room on the second floor, by one of the sets of stairs. Its placement meant it clearly wasn't a classroom.

“This is the student council room,” Eikichi announced.

Lisa stared at him blankly. “Why wasn't this the _first_ place we checked when we're looking for the _student council president_?”

He made a face at her and opened the door, gesturing for the ladies to go first. There were only three guys inside, who all looked up when they walked in.

“Oh, Michel-san! You're safe! That's great!” one of them said, walking over to them.

“Yeah!” another agreed. “Kasugayama High would be done for if anything happened to you!”

Eikichi looked confused. “What the hell...? Aren't you guys Inoe's cronies? I thought you couldn't stand the sight of me.”

The first guy shook his head. “Oh, no. That's a terrible misunderstanding. To tell the truth, we didn't know how to handle the president's megalomania.”

“If you seize this opportunity to put him in his place, the council – no, the whole school, really – will be better off for it,” the second added.

“He's afraid of you. He's hiding somewhere in the school. Please find him and end his reign of terror!”

Lisa thought they seemed a little too enthusiastic about this.

Eikichi looked kind of annoyed. “Alright, alright! So, any ideas on where he might be hiding?”

“I heard from one of the others that he's in the basement! You should check down there!”

“The basement, huh... I guess guys do like hiding down there...” He scratched his head. “Though it's usually to avoid people in general, not just an ass-kicking...”

Lisa looked over at the reporters. Maya was questioning the third council member who had nothing but praise for Inoe, while Yukino was reading off the whiteboard.

“This week's objective... Each member... Five masks a day?” She looked horrified by the implications. “What _is_ this?”

Lisa peered over her shoulder. “This can't be good... We should find this president guy and kick his ass! Hey, Eikichi, let's get going!”

He nodded. “Yeah. Let's get this over with.”

* * *

Eikichi led them down to a storage area underneath the school.

“There's another section of the basement in here,” he said, motioning to a door. “We're not supposed to go in the air raid shelter down there because it's dangerous, but the area down here is useful if you wanna be alone. Though we're technically not supposed to go past here at all.”

He opened the door and waited for everyone to walk in before following them.

There were a lot of items scattered around the floor of the basement. In the far corner, sitting on an overturned bucket and reading was a black-haired boy with a flower tucked in the pocket of his jacket. Lisa found her gaze lingering on him just a little too long as she convinced herself that obviously her attention would be drawn to the one person in the room. There was no other reason why she would be staring at him like that.

“Is that him?” Maya asked.

“... No,” Eikichi replied. “Inoe's got glasses and looks like a real wimp.”

The boy glanced up from his book, back down, paused, then slowly looked all the way back up.

“Michel-san?” he said. He sounded wary as his eyes – or, rather, his eye given that his bangs fell over the other one – flicked between Eikichi and Lisa.

“Hey, sempai." He gave a lazy wave. "Have you seen Inoe? Someone told us he was hiding down here.”

“Inoe... Yasuo? The student council president?” The boy shook his head. “No... you're the first people I've seen down here.”

“Maybe he came down earlier and hid in here?” Lisa asked, motioning to the air raid shelter. “I mean, he clearly knew we were coming so maybe he thought to hide where we probably wouldn't look for him?"

"Why _are_ you looking for him?" the boy asked.

Eikichi looked as if he was about to say something, but was cut off by a new voice.

“P-Please... let me go...” The voice came from inside the shelter. Lisa and Eikichi both turned to the door, angry.

"That him?" she asked

"That's him," he confirmed.

“I-I was wrong... I'll never do it again... Just forgive me!”

“Forgive you?” Eikichi asked. “Forget that! There's a whole laundry list of stuff we gotta ask you! There's no way we're just letting you go!”

“You're gonna tell us about the emblem curse whether you like it or not!” Lisa said.

The two of them pushed their way into the bomb shelter.

“Wait, you shouldn't go in there!” the boy shouted as he stood up but it was too late.

Lisa couldn't see anything in the total darkness of the shelter, but there was a clattering of feet and shouting from outside as Maya and Yukino rushed to follow them.

And then the door shut.


	8. Act 1: Flower Boy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was going to edit this more but I got tired of editing.

It was dark inside the bomb shelter. When the door slammed shut behind Maya and Yukino, the only source of light was cut off and it became impossible for Lisa to see anything.

“Inoe!” Eikichi shouted. “Where are you? Come out!”

“Hold on, Eikichi-kun,” Maya's voice interrupted. “Don't move until I turn on my light. Um... Huh, I was sure I had a flashlight.”

“I _think_ you dropped it,” another voice said before a light flickered on.

“Oh, grazie! Thank you-” Maya paused as everyone processed that the one holding the flashlight – and looking extremely displeased – was the boy with the flower. “Oh... You're... down here, too.”

“Unfortunately,” he replied, handing her the flashlight back. “I was trying to stop you all from running in here and _yet_...”

A static voice came broke through the darkness, laughing at them. Lisa automatically shifted herself into a fighting stance.

“I can't believe you _fell_ for it!” the voice said with glee.

"Inoe!" Eikichi said. "Where are you!?"

Maya shined the flashlight towards the source of the voice, a little black device that looked to have been hastily tossed in here rather than, say, an actual person.

“A... walkie-talkie...?” Yukino asked as the realization of what had happened dawned on all of them. “ _What_ a dirty _trick!_ ”

“Rumor has it, no one knows where the exit to that air raid shelter is,” Inoe continued. “Once you're in... you can never get out!” His voice was nasally and gleeful.

"Please, the door can't be _that_ hard to find..." the flower-boy said. "We're still in the entranceway."

“Alright, you bastard, what the hell's your scheme?” Eikichi shouted.

“ _I'm_ making this school an ideal educational facility, worthy of a genius such as myself. But first... the vermin must be exterminated.”

“I don't know if genius is the right word when I make higher grades than him...” the flower-boy muttered. “ _I'm_ certainly no genius, after all...”

“What did you say...!?” Eikichi's voice was dangerously low.

“Sugimoto-kun was only a stalking horse,” Inoe continued. “I set the stage by spreading a rumor that the Leader was stronger than the Boss. I... hadn't considered that you'd use it to your advantage. Hence, my plan to play the vermin against each other misfired.”

“Kehhei!” Lisa said. “How about you come out and face us instead of being a coward about it!? You want us dead so badly, do it yourself!"

“I think not. Savage elements must be _contained_ lest they contaminate the rest of society.”

The flower-boy took a deep breath and crossed his arms. "Look, I really want nothing to do with whatever's going on here... I promised to stay out of trouble... But I'm fairly certain this qualifies as 'overstepping your authority.'"

Eikichi nodded. "It ain't up to you to make those kinds of decisions! Student council president ain't got _that_ much power!"

“That's Kashihara Jun, isn't it?" Inoe asked. "Hm. I didn't expect to trap  _you_ down there... but it's only a matter of time before you snap and attack someone as you did at Sevens. It's better for everyone that you are, isn't it?”

“That's not what happened! It was an accident!” Jun argued, suddenly angry as opposed to his prior state of just mild irritation. "If those guys had just left me alone..."

Inoe seemed to pay him no mind. “On the other hand... if the ladies give me a writeup in their periodical and... Lisa-san becomes my g-girlfriend... I'll make an exception for the females.”

Didn't this guy know that no girl ever wanted to go out with someone who referred to women as 'females?' Lisa couldn't remember the last guy she'd actually dated or even held some kind of real interest in. She knew whoever she was into had to have been the opposite of Inoe, though.

Maya stared at the walkie-talkie, then grinned. “Oh... So sorry! Our next special report's already been decided, you see...: An expose on abuse of power by students holding positions of authority!"

“Besides, a walkie-talkie would hardly make for an interesting photo,” Yukino added. "Shame. If only you'd show us your actual face..."

“Holeen! How sad!” Lisa said, giving her voice a mocking tone of false disappointment. “That would mean the only place I could take you on a date is the customer service center!”

Inoe growled. “Fine! Starve to death in there for all I care!”

Eikichi marched over, picked up the walkie-talkie, and threw it against one of the walls, breaking it. “Gah!” he said. “That scumbag!”

Yukino smacked him. “Eikichi! What the hell!?”

Lisa wanted to smack him, too. “Yeah, you moron! Why'd you go and break our only contact with the outside!?”

“Whaaa?” he asked. “B-but...”

“Oh well,” Maya said, moving between them to break it up. “No use crying over it now. It's at times like these that you gotta remember to think positive, guys! Together, we can find a way out.”

“Look, there are two sets of doors,” Jun said, pointing to both sets. “I can't quite remember which way we came in from but, logically, one of those has to be the exit. Let's just check both and see where each one leads.”

Lisa nodded and ran over to one of the doors, while Jun stationed by the other one. She gave a thumbs-up and opened the door. There was just more cave.

“This one leads further in,” she announced. “And the other one?”

“Also leads further in.” Jun slammed his door shut. “Which means that neither of these is the exit and begs the question of how we got in here if neither of these leads to the outside."

“Well, guys, we'll just have to look for it the hard way!” Maya announced. “In the meantime, I guess we should introduce ourselves properly. Your name was...?"

“... Kashihara Jun."

“I'm Amano Maya! This is Lisa Silverman, Mayuzumi Yukino, and... Well, I guess you already know Eikichi-kun. It's nice to meet you, Jun-kun!”

“Not really, given the circumstances.”

Maya just grinned. “Yeah, I'm really sorry we got you into this but wasting time helps no one. Let's pick a door and get going. I'm sure we'll find the exit.”

Lisa nodded and motioned for everyone to follow through her door. It would be better than waiting around for nothing to happen.

* * *

They slowly traversed down the passageway. At first, it seemed like it'd just be wandering uneventfully in circles until a pack of demons ambushed and surrounded them. Two Ogres, two schoolgirl zombies, and a Nisroc.

Jun, who most likely had never encountered demons before, looked startled.

“Sempai, stay behind me!” Eikichi shouted. “We'll handle this.”

Lisa summoned Eros, rushing forward to try to take out one of the Ogres. Meanwhile, Maya and Yukino each focused on one the zombies and Eikichi turned to the Nisroc.

Unfortunately, nobody kept an eye on the remaining Ogre. Lisa turned around just in time to see it knock Jun to the ground. Despite this, he looked relatively okay.

"Jun-kun!" Maya shouted, summoning Maia and preparing a Hama.

"Of all the times for it to vanish on me..." Jun said, pulling himself to his knees. "Can't you do something useful for once!?"

There was the blue glow and a figure, coated in gold and carrying a staff, appeared above him. When she saw it, she felt another vague sense of familiarity. Not the same as with Maia, more on the level with Rhadamanthus, but still strange.

“ _I am Hermes,”_ it said. _“Giver of fortune and fame, and herald of souls. I shall accompany you as the winds of change blow.”_

A gust of wind blew, taking out the demon with one strike. Maya's spell fizzled out in shock as she stared at the fading Persona.

“Wha- Sempai, _you_ have a Persona?” Eikichi was clearly shocked by this turn of events.

Jun was breathing heavily as he stood up. "Have a... Have a what?"

Yukino put a hand on his shoulder. "We should keep moving for now. More demons might try to attack us. We can talk once we're somewhere safer."

Jun stared at her, then nodded silently.

* * *

They came to a stop in another room, this one with a significant leak in the ceiling.

“Well,” Yukino said, staring at the dripping water, “at least we won't die of thirst.”

“Gross!” Lisa said. “I'm not drinking that!”

“We'll still die of starvation if we don't find the exit,” Jun said.

Maya was checking the compass, Eikichi hovering over her shoulder.

“Something's interfering with it,” she said, pointing at it. “Look at how wildly the needle's spinning. My sense of direction feels out of whack, too... If we didn't have any light, we'd be lost for sure. I'm glad I brought spare batteries along with the flashlight...”

“Let's pause and take a breath for a bit,” Eikichi suggested. "We were walking for a while... Honestly, I didn't realize this shelter was so big."

Maya nodded. “Sure. I could stand to rest my legs for a little.”

Everyone found somewhere to sit on the ground. Lisa chose to rest her back against the wall and stretch her arms and legs out.

"Alright, since we've got the chance, let's talk about the Persona thing," Yukino said. "You seemed pretty aware of your Persona, already. Why is that?"

Jun looked up from where he'd been fiddling with his flower. "Oh, uh... I'd rather not talk about it. There was an. Incident. At Sevens. Back when I was a student there."

"The one that got you expelled?" Lisa asked. "Where you supposedly, like, maimed some guys? It was kind of a big deal. Especially with your dad being a teacher and all."

Maya and Yukino were both clearly unsure what to do with this information as Jun sheepishly nodded his head.

"I was trying to get them to leave me alone..." he muttered, looking back down at his flower. "Then suddenly... I don't know. It all happened pretty fast but it's not like the teachers would have believed me if I told them the truth."

"Alright..." Yukino said. "Well... have you ever played the Persona game?"

His head snapped back up. "Played... what?"

"The Persona game. It's how Maya-san and I got our Persona abilities. Eikichi and Lisa... don't seem to remember ever playing it, though."

Maya tugged on her ear again, frowning. She seemed to do that whenever the Persona game was brought up, which led Lisa to wonder if there was something she hadn't told them.

Jun's gaze flicked over the group, then to the ground. He bit his lip.

"I... think I played a game like that with some friends. As kids..."

"A-Are you alright?" Maya asked. "You look... upset."

"I'm fine. I just... I think I'm more tired than I realized. Sorry."

Jun moved further away from the rest of the group and continued fiddling with his flower, a sad look on his face for some reason. Lisa had the bizarre urge to go comfort him or something but sensed her intrusion wouldn't be welcomed. Instead, she just stayed where she was, watching the water drip from the ceiling.

* * *

“This place looks like the first room, doesn't it?” Yukino asked. “Am I imagining that or have we come full-circle?"

“No, it's the same room,” Maya said. “I made a mark on the wall before we left... Well, we just took a wrong turn somewhere! Let's keep going! I'm sure we'll get out!”

Lisa thought her positivity sounded kind of forced.

“Hey, sempai?” Eikichi said, looking at Jun. “Can I ask what it is that you've been throwing at the demons? Cause I'm sure I'm just imagining things but it looked like you were throwing...” He trailed off as Jun held up the flower that had been in his pocket. “Alright, what the hell?”

Jun shrugged, not making eye contact.

“It's... It's a flower.”

“Yes.”

“The machine gun guitar case was weird,” Lisa said, “but at least that's still a weapon. Just a disguised one. Why would you even _consider_ throwing a flower at a demon?"

“Guys, let's go!” Maya said, standing by the door. Yukino had her arms crossed.

Eikichi and Lisa both stared at Jun as he tucked the flower back into its pocket and walked away to join them.

“Is it just me or does he not like us?” Lisa asked.

“He's always been like that,” Eikichi said. “Avoids people a lot. I wasn't really surprised to find him hiding in the basement. He doesn't have any friends, I think. Maybe he's just a loner.”

* * *

“I'm really thirsty... but I don't want to drink this...” Lisa muttered as they stopped to rest in the room with the drip from the ceiling again. They must have made another wrong turn to have ended up back here.

“Don't be such a lightweight,” Yukino said. “Look, you can tell by the bugs in it that this water's perfectly drinkable.”

“Yeah! Bugs! I'm not drinking something that has bugs in it!”

“I don't mean drink out of the _puddle_! I mean catch the drips in your hand and drink those!”

“No!”

She marched off to join Maya and Jun in sitting against the wall, plopping herself between them. Jun didn't seem too happy with this.

The hell was his problem anyway? Clearly, he was pissed about getting trapped in the shelter with everyone else but he seemed to treat Eikichi and herself more coldly than Maya and Yukino. Was it because the other two women were older? Or because Eikichi and Lisa had been the first ones to rush into the shelter? The guy didn't seem to like answering questions, so she doubted she'd get a straight answer out of him.

* * *

“This is the first room again,” Jun said. "And still no sign of the exit."

Lisa wanted to scream. Why was there no way out of the damn shelter? Where was the fucking _exit_? She wanted out so she could kill that stupid student council president. What gave him the right to be so full of himself, anyway? As if the position was worth anything more than looking good on college applications.

“You alright, Ginko?” Eikichi asked.

“ _No._ ”

She wondered what the look on her face had to be that he held his hands up defensively. “Okay, yeah, I'm pissed too but you don't gotta look like you're about murder me.”

“I'm not gonna murder _you_. I'm gonna murder that _president guy_ just as soon as we get _out of here_. Now _don't_ talk to me.”

He shook his head and left. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Jun watching them intently. She glared at him and he looked away.

* * *

“You know, there is that rumor about the guy with the mirror getting out...” Eikichi said as Lisa once again contemplated whether she should drink from the dripping water.

“Was there?” Jun asked. “I don't pay much attention to the gossip mill.”

“You should. Rumors become reality now and that's why we're stuck down here. Didn't we mention that earlier?”

“Rumors... become... reality.” Jun sounded disbelieving. "No, you didn't mention that."

“Oh. Well, it's true. The Sevens emblem curse, Shiraishi Ramen selling weapons, the statue of Sevens' principal walking around...” He turned to Lisa. “Hey what happened to that thing anyway?”

“I dunno. We left it with Sensei, remember?” she said. “Then we saw him standing over the clock face with no statue in sight..." She turned to Jun. "Did your dad not tell you about what happened at Sevens yesterday?"

He shook his head. "I was already in bed by the time Papa got home. I only barely noticed him coming in. He left again pretty early this morning. He did say that Sevens had been closed due to some incident but he didn't give me any details. He's been acting oddly for a few days now..."

"Oh... Well, the principal might? Be dead? We're not sure. So they're dealing with that... and also the rampant vandalism and the destruction of the clock tower. It's kind of all our fault but, in our defense, we had a good reason."

Jun stared at her. "... What... What happened?"

"It's a really long story," Eikichi said. "I don't think we really have time to tell it right now, though. Maya-san and Yukino-san seem to be getting impatient over there."

Jun sighed. “Well... we shouldn't keep them waiting, I suppose."

He slowly turned his back to them and walked off. In the back of her mind, Lisa could feel Eros trying to say something, which she'd been doing since Hermes first appeared. It was something important, she thought, having to do with Jun.

Lisa just couldn't make it out what it was.

* * *

Three full rounds through the same pathway. Any branches they'd found only lead to dead ends. When they were back in the entrance area, Lisa flopped onto the ground, stretching out against the wall and refusing to move. Jun, Eikichi, and Yukino were quick to follow suit, as exhausted as she was. Maya stood by the wall, staring at the mark she'd made.

“How long have we been in here...?” Eikichi asked.

“About ten hours,” Jun said, checking his watch.

“No wonder I'm so hungry,” Yukino said. “We haven't eaten since breakfast."

Maya looked thoughtful “Hey, Lisa... Do you have a mirror? Eikichi-kun mentioned a rumor that someone got out using a mirror earlier, right?”

Everyone else looked hopeful at this prospect but Lisa shook her head.

“Ng Hai," she said, "I don't have it with me now... I left it at home this morning to make room for the stuff we picked up at Satomi Tadashi.”

“My my, hey hey...” Eikichi said, standing up. “Three ladies here and none of them has a mirror!?” He sighed. “Good thing I'm so beautiful...” He produced a mirror from his pocket and ran a hand through his hair.

She stood up too, ticked off. “Dude, why didn't you pull that out _before_ if you had it!? Mooning over your own face isn't exactly helping here...”

She tried to grab it from him but he pulled back. They both ended up losing their grips, with the mirror landing on the floor and shattering.

“Ai... yah...” she said. “... _What now_!? You better take responsibility for this, jackass!”

“ _Me!?_ This is your fault! You better pay me back! That'll be one million yen!”

“You're crazy if you think I'm paying that much for a damn mirror! You probably got it from a drugstore or something, anyway!”

“That's enough!” Yukino shoved her way between them “Thanks to _you two_ , we just lost what might be our only hope of getting out of here!”

“Great...” Jun muttered. He pulled his knees to his chest, rested his arms atop them, and bowed his head until his face was hidden.

“Oh come on... Think positive, guys!” Maya said. It seemed _extremely_ forced by now. “This isn't over until we decide it is. Let's brainstorm! There has to be a way!”

“Maya-san...” Yukino put a hand on her shoulder. “We're all exhausted. Let's rest a while to cool down a bit. We'll take turns keeping watch. I can go first.”

Maya started to say something but broke into a yawn. She apparently accepted the situation and slowly nodded. Everyone else was all too happy to spread out and find places to try to sleep on the filthy ground of the shelter.

* * *

Lisa stretched her arms out as she sat up, blinking the sleep from her eyes. The stone wasn't exactly comfortable and this was definitely one of the worst nights of her life. Something clicked and then there was the flashlight being shone right into her face.

“ _Hey,_ ” she complained.

“Sorry,” Jun said, turning it away to point at the wall instead. “Is it your turn already?”

“No... I just can't sleep on this ground...” She rolled her neck. “I'm gonna be so sore tomorrow...”

“Mm...”

She got up to sit by him. “Do you think we'll actually get out of here...?”

He avoided looking at her. “... Why ask me?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. You haven't spoken to us unless necessary, really. You haven't even bothered to ask why we were looking for Inoe or anything. I take it you're pretty pissed about getting trapped down here with us."

He shook his head. "If the blame lies with anyone, it's Inoe-san. He led you into a trap. I was just unlucky enough to get snagged in it too. Besides, he admitted that he doesn't care if I'm down here, anyway."

Well shit. What was his fucking problem then, if he wasn't mad over their situation? She almost wanted to ask but decided against it. "Do you want the actual story? So you at least know why we're all stuck down?"

He shrugged. "I suppose. I'm not sure what kind of grudge you might have against Inoe-san that would result in such a situation... And you didn't really explain that bit about rumors becoming reality, either. How does that work?"

“Well... we don't really have an answer for why rumors are becoming reality but... it has something to do with Joker. That's why we were chasing Inoe. He seems to be connected to Joker somehow and, besides, he's behind the Sevens emblem being cursed.”

Jun looked startled and he looked directly at her for what she was sure was the first time all day. “Joker...? You mean as in... 'call your own cell phone number and Joker will grant your wish?'”

Lisa nodded. “Yeah, that guy. He's real but... if you don't tell him your wish... he steals your dreams and turns you into a shadowman. Everyone forgets about you except for those of us with Personas... He did it to my friend Mee-ho and some of Eikichi's pals..."

He blinked. "That's... terrible. I'm sorry."

She clenched her hand into a fist. "That's why we're after him. We gotta find him and make him turn them - and everyone he's turned into shadowmen - back. He's gathering the stolen dreams for something, I think. He was also up to something with Hanya... And all the people who get their wish granted have to join this organization he runs or he'll turn _them_ into shadowmen... Oh, and there's also the fact that Joker wants me and Eikichi dead.”

“D-Dead...? For interfering with him or...?”

She shook her head. “He tried to kill us the first moment he saw us. Something about... a sin we've committed. But I have no idea what he's talking about. All we have as a clue is some old gachapon he threw at us to 'jog our memory' when he realized we didn't know what he meant.”

“A... gachapon.” Jun sounded incredulous.

“Yeah. Here, I've got it on me.” She rummaged around in her pocket and pulled out the keychain to hand to him.

Jun took it from her and stared at it, going oddly silent. "This... It couldn't be..."

“Is... Is something about the keychain familiar? You're looking at it pretty intently there.”

He blinked and looked back up. “Uh, yeah, it's... It's Black Condor. From Phoenix Ranger Featherman. You should already know that, though..."

"I should?"

He shook his head, handing the keychain back to her. "I just mean... It was pretty popular when we were kids. Everyone I knew watched it. I would be surprised if you hadn't.”

“Phoenix Ranger... Featherman... Eh, come to think of it, I think I do remember a show by that name.” For some reason, though, she seemed unable to recall specific details, especially the masks they wore. No wonder she didn't recognize it. “You sure that's it?”

“Positive. Black Condor was my favorite.”

“Well, I guess that answers _one_ question... So the creepy, murder-katana, wish-granting guy handed me a Featherman keychain in hopes that'd I'd suddenly know what the hell I did to him?”

“It seems that way...”

"Wonder what it's supposed to mean."

Jun rubbed the face of his watch with a fingertip, staring at it. "I wonder..."

She blinked, leaning over to look more closely. It looked to be expensive, though rather old. "That's a nice watch...”

“It was a gift,” he replied distractedly. “From a friend.”

She sat back, giving him his personal space again. “Must be a pretty good friend you have.”

Jun looked sad. "He was but... not anymore. I got the watch a while ago."

“Oh...” she tapped her fingers on the ground, almost wanting to ask what happened. “Um... I think it's time for my shift now. You should get some sleep.”

“... Alright.” He handed her the flashlight and walked away, leaving Lisa by herself.

As she watched him settle on the floor, his back to her, she had to wonder... why did Eros feel so sad around him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Wristwatch**  
>  An expensive wristwatch that Jun wears. He claims to have received from a friend a long time ago.
> 
>  **Hermes**  
>  Null: Wind, Dark  
> Strong: Light, Nerve, Mind  
> Weak: Electricity  
> Skills: Garu (rank 1), Illuzone (rank 2), Wind Slash (rank 4), Posumudi (rank 6), Magaru (rank 8), Garula (mutation)


End file.
